


Soulmates?

by ratbox



Category: Dear Evan Hansen - Pasek & Paul/Levenson
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Anxiety Attacks, Bad Parenting, Bisexual Evan Hansen, Boyfriends, Break Up, Bullying, F/M, Falling In Love, Fluff and Angst, Friends to Lovers, Gay Jared Kleinman, Hate Crimes, Heavy Angst, Homophobia, Homophobic Language, Implied/Referenced Self-Harm, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Jared Kleinman Has Bad Parents, Jared Kleinman Not Being an Asshole, Kleinsen, M/M, Moving In Together, Panic Attacks, Slurs, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, Soulmates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-21
Updated: 2019-07-30
Packaged: 2020-05-15 18:47:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 38
Words: 37,852
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19301650
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ratbox/pseuds/ratbox
Summary: evan hansen's hope has always been pinned on zoe being his soulmate.jared kleinman has never believed in soulmates.when the two discover that theirs match, though, chaos is bound to ensue.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Blissfulbroadway](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Blissfulbroadway/gifts).



> hello hello!! based on an rp with blissfulbroadway!  
> some things are a little bit changed, but, overall it's practically the same!

When you’re born, the first thing that really pops out on your body is the weird birthmark you’re born with. Every birthmark is supposedly unique, but has a match somewhere in the world… that match, is supposed to be your soulmate. The birthmark was your map, of sorts. You’re taught about it at a young age; how the small shape is going to match with someone else's, and you’ll fall in love, and ultimately get married. It was your journey in life to find this person. The could be anywhere, and you were supposed to hunt for them. Jared, thought that was a hunk of bullshit.

Jared Kleinman’s birthmark was located under the knuckle of his right index finger. It was almost the shape of a heart, and Jared despised it. The whole soulmate thing seemed entirely made up to him, and he was sick of hearing about it. He was sick of seeing people walking down the hallway, hand-in-hand, gushing about how they’re soulmates. It wasn’t appealing to Jared whatsoever. Why do you need a small shape to determine who your lover is? Just fall in love. That was Jared’s motto. He didn’t agree with the soulmate thing… not one bit.

It wasn’t that he would never want a relationship, because he would. He loved the idea of growing old with someone, but didn’t think that he’d want to necessarily search the planet just to find “the one”. For all Jared knew, the match to his birthmark could be in Germany. When would he ever go to Germany? His family refused to step foot into Germany considering their history with Jewish people. It was ridiculous, but, Jared had to obey.

Sometimes Jared felt singled out. Like he was the only person who didn’t give two shits about his birthmark. It was sadistic to admit that Jared enjoyed seeing people’s failed attempts at comparing wrists, and arms, and hands. It just proved that people were too desperate for love. Of course, though, there were the lucky few who actually found their soulmate at school; the aforementioned couples walking down the hallway, gushing to each other.

Jared could care less, though. He would just live with the insecurity of the small heart-shaped birthmark on his knuckle.

He stood at his locker, putting away the textbooks that he had used that day, when Evan Hansen walked over.   
  
Mark Evan Hansen; formally, Evan Hansen, was Jared’s friend-- rather, “family-friend”. Of course, Jared looked to Evan as a friend, he just didn’t want to admit that. He wanted to look cool, and he figured that being seen around the kid who broke his arm while climbing a tree was not the best way of getting popular. Jared just wanted to be seen by people. And not just one person… the boy standing in front of him, with dirty blonde hair, blue eyes, and a blank arm cast.

“Hey, Jared?” Evan spoke. “Do you know how to talk to girls?”

“Uh…” Jared huffed out a chuckle. He closed his locker, and put his backpack around his shoulders. He crossed his arms, leaning against his now closed, and locked, locker. “Good question, Hansen. Why?”

“Okay, well… I’ve been thinking. I think that I’m finally going to ask out Zoe Murphy. See if we’re a match. I swear I’ve seen her birthmark, a-and I think that we match. It looks exactly like mine. So, uh… how should I, like, talk to her?” Evan questioned. “Should I get her something? Uh… flowers? Chocolate?”  
  
“You’re getting ahead of yourself.” Jared said.

“I mean, maybe…”

Evan took the soulmate thing way too seriously. He had been obsessed with Zoe Murphy for years now, and still had yet to ask if they were a match. Jared wished that he’d just get it over with, and ask her already. Or, maybe if it did happen, Evan would never stop gushing about her. There was no happy medium.

“Listen, dude. All you gotta do is be yourself. Girls find it attractive when you’re confident in yourself.” Like Jared was one to talk about what girls liked, and didn’t like. He didn’t know girls. He didn’t like girls. He liked boys. He was gay, but didn’t want to make a fuss about it. He hated people that made being gay their own personality trait. “Just act normal. Don’t write a fuckin’ script or anything.”

“Right, no script. Just… planned improv?” Evan asked.

“Yeah, sure. Planned improv if that’s how you want to put it.” Jared replied, with a shrug. He started to walk away. “I’m leaving if you want a ride home.”

“Sure.” Evan nodded, and started to follow behind him. “So… do you think I have a chance?”

In his head, Jared laughed. Zoe Murphy was fairly popular. She had rich as fuck parents, and a somewhat-psychotic brother by the looks of it. She played guitar in jazz band, and drove a brand-spankin’ new Kia (courtesy of Mr. and Mrs. Murphy). Evan, on the other hand, wore khakis, and polos bought from Target every day of the week. He didn’t drive, or play an instrument, and had one family-friend. Was Zoe way out of Evan’s league? Yes. But would Jared admit that? No. “Yeah, sure. Just be yourself, and I guess you’ve got something.”

Evan let out a soft, nervous laugh. “I hope so.”

Consider the above, and also take into account that Evan had crippling anxiety. Now imagine him standing in front of Zoe Murphy, confessing his love. The amount of stuttering, sweating and hesitation. Maybe Jared was just an asshole, though. It wasn’t like he would be any better in the situation.  
  
“Maybe just don’t go full English project on Daisy Buchanan, when you just stood in front of the class going “um, um, um” for ten minutes until you ran off into the hallway.” Jared said.

“I don’t want to remember that.” Evan looked down.

“Just don’t be like that.”

Evan simply nodded.

The two made their way outside, and to the senior parking lot where Jared’s PT Cruiser was parked. It wasn’t the most gorgeous car, but it got the job done, and Jared liked it. Plus, an added bonus; his parents paid for his car insurance. All that Jared had to do was be nice to Evan, and his parents would pay for it. It was a win-win situation. Jared pulled his keys out of his pocket, and unlocked the car. He got into the driver’s seat, and threw his backpack into the backseat. Evan got into the passenger seat, but instead of throwing his stuff into the back with Jared’s, he just hugged onto his backpack. 

“So, Jared… do you-- do you, uh, have any idea on who your soulmate might be?” Evan asked. Evan knew that Jared was gay, in fact, he came out to him in middle. It was one of Evan’s most vivid memories with Jared. He clung to him, and begged him not to hate him, or tell anyone. He hadn’t broken any of those promises.

“Oh, yeah, actually. Hugh Jass.” Jared replied, putting his keys into the ignition.

Evan gasped. “Hugh Jass? What-- oh, wait…”

Jared laughed, and reached over to turn on the stereo. “You really don’t know him? He has these two, beautifully round che--”

“Okay, okay… I get it.” Evan chuckled softly, putting his back down by his feet, and buckling himself in. “But, seriously… do you have any ideas?”

“I don’t know. And frankly? I don’t care.” Jared buckled up, and started to drive not long after.”I’m going to be completely honest, Evan. I don’t give a shit if I have a soulmate. They could be dead for all I care.”

“Hey! Maybe now that you’ve said that, he is dead!” Evan exclaimed, defensively. Jared simply shrugged, staring at the road in front of him as he drove in the direction of both Evan and his houses. They were practically neighbours. They only lived a few doors down from each other. “Why are you against the whole soulmate thing? You’re so cynical.” 

“The whole thing seems like a fucking hoax. Sure, you have someone who matches with you, but who’s to say that you’ll actually love this person? Or if they’re the gender you’re attracted to, or the same age as you? Fuck, they could be across the fucking world, in a different country. The whole thing is just too fucking weird, Evan. I don’t care.” Jared explained, eyes still glued to the road.

“Well, I like the idea of a soulmate. It helps me know that… there actually is someone out there for me. All of my hope is pinned on Zoe.” Evan said. Jared rolled his eyes. “I can just imagine a life with my soulmate. The person I’m meant to be with. The fact that they’re actually meant for you. That they’re your soulmate! Gosh, it all just sounds so nice.”

Jared couldn’t deny the idea of love was sweet, but, the soulmate thing? Not so much. He scoffed at Evan’s fantasies.

Evan frowned, looking over to Jared. “I wish that you’d have a brighter perspective on all of this.”

“Try and convince me. Maybe I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt.” Jared said.

Evan perked up a bit, and thought. “This person is meant for you. The universe matched you with someone who is… practically just like you. The universe wouldn’t match you with, like… a newborn. That would be weird. It plans all this out.” Evan started. He glanced down to the small heart-shaped birthmark on his right hand. “The birthmark might be stressful, yeah… I know it is. But think about it, Jared. If you find your soulmate, you could finally experience true love. I think that maybe it’s how your sexuality is decided, too. Like, your soulmate is bound to be a guy… I think the universe--”

“Could we not bring my sexuality into this?” Jared hated himself for being gay. If he could just be normal, that would be fantastic, but no… he had to be attracted to the same gender. The situation was only made worse thanks to his parents. Mainly his mom, who was strictly against homosexuals. Men were meant to be with women… being gay is a sin. That was her policy.

“Right. I’m sorry, Jared.” Evan looked down. “What I’m trying to say is that there’s someone out there for you. And you can disregard that if you want to, but I know that if you don’t find your soulmate, you’re going to live your life infuriated at the world. The sheer sight of love is going to get you fired up. You’re going to get jealous of friends, and relatives who have found their soulmates. I can see it, Jared, you’re not as tough as you look.”

That hit him. Jared gripped the steering wheel, and sighed. He didn’t have a response, because Evan was right. He was a hundred percent right. The thought of spending his life with his soulmate wasn’t a terrible thought, but he just wasn’t going to go on some wild goose chase just to find him.

“Am I right, Jared?” Evan asked.

“Yeah, I guess.” Jared admitted.

“Hey, you’ll find whoever you’re meant to be with, Jared. I promise.” Evan reached out, and put a hand on Jared’s shoulder. He felt a bit of a shock when he touched him, but ignored it. He figured it was just static.

Jared couldn’t help but smile a small bit. “Sure.” He pulled up in front of Evan’s house, and parked his car. “Well, there you go. Tu casa.”

“Spanish class has treated you well.” Evan joked. He pulled back his hand, and grabbed his bag. “Gracias, Jared. For the ride, and the chat.”

Jared nodded, and pushed up his glasses. “De nada. Hey, don’t forget to tell your mom to tell my mom that I was nice to you, or else my parents won’t pay for my car insurance.”

Evan felt his heart sink a little bit. Right, they weren’t actually friends. Jared was just his friend for car insurance. He swallowed a breath, and hummed in response. “Right. See you, Jared.” He waved, then closed the door, and walked up to the front door of his house. Jared waited until he was inside, then he drove away. 

Everything that Evan said replayed through his head. He found himself fantasizing until he parked in his driveway. He fantasized about a life with his soulmate; a boy with dirty-blonde hair, and blue eyes. An apple tree in the backyard, and a cat… a dog, too. Plants, and animals. A few kids. The ideal life. Jared’s heart was fluttering at the thought. He turned off his car, and got out, grabbing his bag from the backseat of his van, and making his way inside. 

Neither of his parents were home yet. His mom didn’t get home until 5:00 on weekdays, and his dad’s schedule was all over the place. Jared was thankful, though. He got some time alone before his mom was to come home and nag about something. His grades, the fact that he didn’t socialize enough, how his van was dirty… anything. Jared just wanted to enjoy his time alone before that happened.

Jared walked up to his room, and collapsed onto his bed, staring up at the ceiling. He let himself continue to think about his life, with a future soulmate. Maybe the little heart-shaped birthmark wasn’t so much of a curse afterall.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> evan asks zoe if their marks match  
> jared starts to feel an emotion that he cant quite name

Jared went to school early the next morning, wanting to avoid the rush of kids that usually came in by around 7:40. So, he arrived at 7:10, and stood at his locker, grabbing whatever he needed for the day. He looked over to see Evan walking down the hallway to his locker. He was dressed up fairly nice. A grey button-up, and jeans. Though, he still wore the same runners he always did. It was a good look for Evan, and Jared quite liked it.

“You’re awfully fancy today.” Jared said, closing his locker, and leaning against it. He crossed his arms, and looked Evan up and down. “What’s the occasion?”

Evan put on the best confident face he could forge. “I’m going to ask Zoe. I’m finally going to do it.” He said. Jared laughed at his fake confidence.

“You’re really going to do it?” Jared questioned.

Evan nodded. “Yeah. I need to. I’ve waited this long, so… I’m ready. I’m ready to do this.”

“Alright, Romeo. Go get your Juliet… oh, Evan. Wherefore art thou, Evan?” Jared acted, putting a hand to his chest, and pouting. 

Evan chuckled nervously. “Alright, alright… God, what should I say? I thought about it all night, and don’t remember anything. What do I do? What if I mess it up?”

“Calm down, for fucks sake.” Jared said. “Just stay calm. Be yourself.”

“Myself. Myself is bad, though. I’m not appealing--”   
  
“Yes you are. Just… don’t overthink things, okay? Just calm down. Take a breath, and calm down. Things are going to be fine. If she’s not your match, then, whatever… you’ll live with it. Just breathe for now. Focus on the now.” Jared reassured. “Maybe things will end up great. Just think about how great things could be, okay?”

Evan smiled softly to Jared, and nodded. “Okay. I will.” He closed his eyes for a moment, and took a few breaths. “Thank you.”

Jared looked over his shoulder, and noticed Zoe. She was at her locker, grabbing what looked to be her biology textbook. Jared held Evan’s shoulder for a moment, feeling the same feeling Evan had yesterday. He ignored it. It was probably just static. “She’s here, man. Go get her. I believe in you.”

Evan opened his eyes, and looked behind him. His heart rate sped up, but he kept breathing. “Okay. Okay, uh, stay here… moral support. Thanks again, man. Wish me luck.”

“Good luck.” Jared patted his shoulder, and opened his locker again, just to make it seem less suspicious. Of course he was going to stay here for Evan. He changed his mind about the whole soulmate thing yesterday, so, might as well stay and watch him hopefully get the girl he’d wanted for so long.

Watching them talking made Jared nervous. Evan was clearly shaking, and was visibly nervous, but he kept trucking through. Zoe looked both worried, and flattered that he came to talk to her. She was a nice girl, but sometimes he thought that the money got to her. Her parents had everything, so, she had everything in return. Jared watched as Evan revealed his hand for Zoe to compare hers to. And soon, the two were hugging. There was a sharp pain in Jared’s birthmark, but he didn’t think anything of it. He just watched the two with a lopsided smile. He supposed that it worked out.

There was a small part of Jared, though, that was hurt. Maybe it was just a side effect of his lack of soulmate… jealousy. Great, so, Evan really was right. His only friend just found his soulmate, and he had nothing. Jared pushed it down, and closed his locker. He figured that Evan was good now, so, he made his way to his first period class and sat down at the back of the classroom. Evan and him shared this class, so he would be able to ask him about Zoe.

After a few minutes, Evan strolled into class with a light smile on his face. He was flustered, and dazed. Happy. It was nice to see him this way. “So, Hansen… good news?”

Evan nodded, and sat down in the desk next to Jared. “We’re a match. It’s weird, though… I thought you were supposed to feel, or see something when you touched your soulmate. Zoe and I didn’t feel anything. Maybe we just didn’t notice it?”

Jared shrugged. “I think that’s the case. I’m happy for you two.”

“Thanks, Jared. I’m pretty happy too. Now we just have to find your soulmate.” Evan smiled over to him. Jared swallowed roughly. 

“Right. My soulmate.” He huffed out a quiet chuckle. “Good luck with that.”

Evan’s small faltered a small bit. “We will find hi--” Jared glared at him. He didn’t want anyone knowing he was gay. “Them. We’ll find them eventually.”

Jared let out a breath of relief, and nodded. “Yeah. Eventually.” He kept a soft smile for a moment, before letting it falter, and turning to face forward as their teacher started the lesson of the day. He sighed, and propped his chin into his hands. In his mind, he continued the fantasy that he had started yesterday after Evan convinced him that having a soulmate wasn’t as bad as it seemed; the dirty blonde boy, with blue eyes. What a life with a soulmate would be like. Jared closed his eyes, and daydreamed.

“Jared Kleinman, we’re not falling asleep, are we?” The teacher interrupted his thoughts. His eyes darted open, and he shook his head.

“No, sorry.” Jared looked down as some of the kids in class turned to look at him. Evan looked over, and chuckled softly. He didn’t mean it to be rude.  
  
“What’s going on with you, Jared? You’re a whole different person today.” Evan whispered. Then, his expression turned more serious. “You’re okay, right?”

“Yeah. Yeah, I’m okay. Just thinking is all… I’ll tell you after class.” Jared replied. Evan nodded, and turned to face the front.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> jared keeps having these weird feelings. he wants answers.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> jacksfilms deep dab

The bell rang, dismissing everyone from class. Jared got up from his desk, and packed up everything he’d taken out. Evan tapped him on the shoulder. “What were you thinking about?” He asked, as he threw his backpack around his shoulders.   
  
Jared put on his own backpack, and then shoved his hands into his pockets. “Long story.”

“Good thing I have a good attention span.” Evan said. Jared laughed softly.

“Right, then. Walk with me.” Jared started to make his way out of the class. Evan followed close beside him. “Yesterday, after I dropped you off I just… started thinking. I started thinking about the whole soulmate thing, and you know… the idea of starting a life with someone who’s meant for me isn’t such a bad idea. It doesn’t mean that I don’t think it’s stupid that we can’t just fall in love with someone, but…”  
  
Evan raised his eyebrows, and smiled. “Alright, go on…”  
  
“I’m not going to go searching. Not yet, anyway… but I have this, like, fantasy in my head. It’s kind of like my ideal kind of relationship, I guess?” Jared shrugged. “But I’ve been thinking about it all night, and all morning. And maybe I’m just a little bit jealous that you got Zoe.”

Evan laughed. “No need to feel jealous.” He said. “You’ll find your soulmate. I know you will. But, it’s cute that you have like… an ideal. It’s a big change in character-- wait,” Evan stopped, and looked to Jared. “You’re not into me, right?”

“What?” Jared stopped in his tracks, his face turning red. “No. Why would you say that?”

“I mean, you’re being so nice to me all of a sudden, and, like--”

“No. No, no… no. No.” Jared shook his head. “No. I guess I’m just sick of the family-friends bullshit. You kind of changed my entire thought on soulmates yesterday, Evan. So, I guess I’m just thankful for that.”

Evan raised an eyebrow. “When you say you’re done with the family-friends thing… what does that mean?” He started to walk again, and so did Jared.

“It means that I’m sick of saying you’re my family-friend. You’re my friend, Evan. Sorry that I kept that shit up for so long.” Jared said, glacing over to Evan.

Evan smiled. “It’s nice to hear that. Explains why you’re being so friendly all of a sudden.”

“Why? Do you want me to be a dick again?” Jared asked.

“No. No, definitely no.”  
  
Jared laughed. “Alright.” 

It was then, that Zoe ran up behind the two, and tapped Evan on the shoulder. “Hey.”

Evan jumped, and turned around. He smiled to his newfound soulmate. “Zoe, hi.”

Jared turned, and faced Zoe. He offered her a lopsided smile, to which she smiled back. Her smile was nice. No wonder Evan always went on, and on about it. 

Zoe moved to latch onto Evan’s arm, and for whatever reason, it made Jared’s heart falter a small bit. He didn’t let anything show, though. He was more confused than anything. “Evan told me that you two are a match.” He said.

Zoe nodded. “Yeah. I never thought that I’d find my soulmate in New Jersey, but, I’m glad that I did.” She said. Jesus, they’d been dating for a little over a fucking hour, and were already lovey-dovey. Maybe it was a soulmate thing. “Sorry for barging in. Just couldn’t wait until lunch to see you.” Zoe continued, more directed at Evan now.

“It’s okay. It’s never a bad time, Zo.”  
  
Jared nodded slowly. “Right.”

“Are you okay, Jared? You’re looking a little pale…” Zoe pointed out.   
  
Jared’s eyes widened, and he nodded a bit faster. Was it showing? “Oh, yeah. I’m cool. Don’t worry about it. Hey, Ev, I’m gonna head to class, dude. See you guys later.” He patted Evan’s arm, and waved to Zoe before walking away. He rushed down the hall, not making eye contact with anybody. His birthmark itched, and he desperately tried to ignore it. Why was this happening?  
  
Jared pushed his way past a group of boys crowded around the door to the boys washroom, and stepped inside. He walked over to the sinks, and looked into the mirror. Jesus, he was pale. Why? Jared had a lot of questions. Why did he feel so effected by Zoe and Evan’s relationship? Why was his birthmark itching? Was his soulmate near? Jared just turned on the tap, and took off his glasses, splashing some water into his face. He took in a deep breath, and let it out. What was happening?

Was this all just jealousy? Jared had no idea. He just sighed, and put on his glasses, walking out of the bathroom and down the hallway to his next class. He needed to think.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> jared runs into zoe and evan again

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hewwo i have a lot of chapters for this fic written i might ju st end up spam posting at some point

The end of the day came slowly. Seconds seemed to tick by more like minutes, and minutes like hours. It was painful, and Jared was glad to finally be out. He walked to his locker, and unlocked it, starting to put everything away. He sighed as he closed his locker, and glanced over to see Evan and Zoe. The feeling in his heart came back, and his birthmark started to itch. He wanted an explanation to all of this… and soon.

Jared walked over to Zoe and Evan, and put on a light smile. “Hey. Sorry if I’m interrupting anything.” He said. Zoe looked back, and smiled to Jared.

“Hey, Jared. No, you’re not interrupting anything.” She replied. “Ev and I were just talking.”

“Oh? About what?” Jared asked. He just wanted to seem normal… like he just wanted to be friends with the two.

“Jazz.” Evan replied.  
  
“Jazz?”

“Yeah, jazz. Not like radio jazz, but like… jazz band jazz. Like Zoe plays.” Evan said. Jared nodded slowly. 

Zoe chuckled and whispered to Jared. “I know he doesn’t know anything about jazz. It’s obvious. Watch this…” She looked back to Evan. “Evan, who’s your favourite jazz musician?”

“Uhh…” Evan hesitated. “Is it cliche to say you?”

Zoe laughed softly, and covered her face to mask the blush that had grown on her cheeks. “Quite. But that was cute, Evan, so I forgive you for your cliche-ness.”

Jared pushed up his glasses, and put on a fake smile. “Hah, smooth one, Hansen.”

“Thanks. Thought so too.” Evan moved to hold onto Zoe’s hand. Jared felt a pain in his heart. He needed to find the answers to this soon, before it drove him mad. 

“Anyway. I just came over to ask if you needed a ride home, Ev.” Jared said.

Evan shook his head. “Nah, it’s okay. Zoe said that she’d drive me home.”

Christ, this girl was going to take over Evan’s whole life… and Jared’s too, apparently. Considering just looking at the two together made his heart break little by little; piece by piece. “Righto. Well, then… I’m gonna get going. Talk to you later, Ev. See you, Zoe.” He waved, and stepped away from the group. He gripped the straps of his backpack tightly, and let out a breath. He didn’t turn back to see Evan and Zoe waving to him. He just walked as fast as he could out of school, and into the senior parking lot. 

Jared unlocked his car as he reached it, and got into the driver's seat. He threw his backpack into the passenger seat, let out a shaky breath, and ran a hand through his hair. Jesus Christ, this was crazy… what was going on with the whole “heart hurting” and “birthmark itching” thing? Jared felt like he was going insane. This situation was going to drive him to insanity if he didn’t figure out what was going on soon. 


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> jared comes home and speaks to his mom for a few moments  
> then, he goes upstairs and thinks about the signs he'd been getting

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> stream beetlejuice on spotify

Jared’s mom was home when he got home. He supposed that it was just another day where she was lucky enough to get off early. Jared, on the other hand, wasn’t as lucky. He didn’t have the most spectacular relationship with his parents. But, there was no avoiding them. Jared grabbed his bag, and got out of his car, walking up the driveway to the front steps. He entered the house, and took off his shoes.

“Jared?” His mom called from the kitchen. Sharron Kleinman. Cordially, Mrs. Kleinman.

“Hey, mom.” Jared replied. He sighed, and adjusted his bag around his shoulders, before wandering into the kitchen to meet with his mother. “How was work?”

“Same as per usual.” Mrs. Kleinman replied. She was in the midst of preparing a lasagna. “How was school?”

“Ditto.” Jared replied. “Same as always. Boring.”

“Your grades are still good?” Mrs. Kleinman asked, looking back to Jared. That was one thing about his parents, they wanted him to be perfect. Some straight A student, with perfect attendance. Mainly, they just wanted him to get into an Ivy League school. His mom went to Princeton for Law, so she wanted Jared to live up to that expectation.

Jared nodded. “All in the 90s.” He replied. “Don’t worry about that.”

“Didn’t plan on it. The day I start to worry about it is the day that you get a tutor.” Mrs. Kleinman said. Jared hummed, and shuffled his feet. 

“Right.” He said. “I’m gonna head upstairs. I have homework to do… uh… just call me if you need me.” 

Mrs. Kleinman nodded. “Okay, sweetie.”

Jared turned on his heel, and walked out of the kitchen to head upstairs to his room. He entered, and collapsed onto his bed with a huff. He pulled his phone out of his pocket, and looked at his notifications. A text from Evan from 9 in the morning that he didn’t get until now.   
  


**‘Hey, thank you for helping me out with Zoe. I owe you everything.’**   
  


Jared sighed, and slid his thumb across the screen to reply.   
  


_‘sorry i’m just getting this now. but don’t thank me. i didn’t do anything lol.’_   
  


He turned off his phone, and flipped onto his back, staring at the ceiling. He closed his eyes, and let himself wander off into his thoughts. The fantasy with the dirty blonde boy, with blue eyes. Jared smiled to himself. It was a new scene… planting a garden in their backyard. It was weird… Jared never really pictured himself to be the type of person to garden. Maybe his soulmate was a gardener. A florist, maybe? He didn’t know any florists.

The only person he knew he liked nature was Evan. And there was no way that his soulmate was Evan.


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> evan seems off, and jared decides to confront him

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> a-angst???

Jared arrived early for school the next day again. He went to his locker, and did the usual tasks. Evan walked in with Zoe. The two were holding hands as they walked down the hallway… they didn’t stop to talk to Jared, instead just offering him a smile, and a wave, before continuing down the hallway on their early-morning stroll. The itching of his birthmark had returned, and he groaned at the feeling. Fantastic. 

Jared had forgotten to Google what his symptoms were. He would just continue to assume that his theory of it just being jealousy to be true. He closed his locker, and walked down the hallway to his first class. Thankfully, the door was open. It was another class that he shared with Evan, so at least he’d be able to see him in class.

The bell rang, and kids started to flood in. Among those kids, Evan entered. He looked upset… anxious, maybe. Jared grew a small bit worried as Evan took his seat beside Jared, and just buried his face into his hands. No words. Just a huff.

“Evan?” Jared looked over at him. “You okay?”

Evan didn’t reply. His leg started to bounce, though. Jared reached over and put a hand on his arm. He pulled back at the shock he received as he touched him. Jesus, Evan had been really full of static recently. 

“Sorry… didn’t mean to shock you.” Jared whispered. “What’s wrong, Evan?”

“Nothing.” Evan replied. Jared shook his head.  
  
“There’s obviously something wrong, Evan.” He said. Evan shook his head, and moved his hands up to his hair, gripping it tightly. His body had started to shake, and Jared could see tears falling onto the desk. “You’re crying.”

“I-I said that-that I’m fine.” Evan retorted quickly. 

Jared stopped pushing him. He just moved back into his desk, and looked forward. Minutes passed, and Evan had gotten worse. Tears continued to fall, and his body shook badly. It was then, that Jared raised his hand. “Mr. Tenant?”

“Yes, Jared?” Mr. Tenant replied.

“Uh… Evan. He’s panicking. Can I talk to him in the hallway?” He asked.

Mr. Tenant sighed, and nodded. “Yes. Be back in 5 minutes, okay?”

Jared nodded, and grabbed his backpack. He got out of his desk, and put a hand on Evan’s shoulder. He ignored the shock this time. “Ev, c’mon, let’s go chat.”

Evan sniffled, and got up. He grabbed his things, and rushed out of the room. Jared followed after him. He reached the hallway, and looked around. Evan had left that quickly? Jared frantically looked around, before moving to go and check the bathroom. 

Thankfully, Evan was inside. He was sitting on the dirty tile floor, arms wrapped around his legs as he held them close to his chest. Jared walked over to him, and sat down next to him. He looked over. “Ev? What’s going on?”

“I-I… I thought-- I thought about Z-Zoe and I all night.” Evan said, his voice shaking. “And-and I just-- why didn’t I feel anything?”

“You still haven’t?” Jared asked.

Evan shook his head. “N-No. I haven’t. And-and that scares me so much. I-I don’t think-- I don’t think we’re soulmates, Jared. We would-- we would have f-felt something by now.”

Jared wrapped an arm around Evan. The boy sniffled, and rested his head on Jared’s shoulder. 

“I-I don’t get it, Jared. We-we matched-- at least, I mean… I thought that we did.” Evan hugged his legs tighter. “Wh-what if-- what if we just… got a glimpse of them together? And-and they don’t actually match?”

“That’s… a possibility.” Jared said. “Ask her?”

“She’ll b-be offended…” Evan replied. He took in a shaky breath, and let it out. “She’ll think th-that I doubt her. And-and that she’s stupid, and-and that I’m just using her.”

“Hey, no. Zoe isn’t like that.” Jared said. He gently rubbed Evan’s shoulder. “She’d understand that you’re scared, Evan.”

“And-and what-- what if we aren’t a match?”   


“Then… then you’ll live with that.”  
  
“She’d be heartbroken…” Evan sniffled. “I don’t want her to get hurt.”

“Sometimes people have to get hurt to learn.” Jared sighed, and looked to Evan. “Evan, you just have to take the risk.”  
  
“I don’t want to.” Evan said. He hesitated for a moment, before turning his body, and wrapping his arms around Jared. “I don’t want to be the-the bad guy.”

Jared froze. His heart skipped a beat, and suddenly… it hit him. He wrapped his own arms around Evan, and put the puzzle together. He liked Evan. It was obvious now. He was jealous of seeing Evan and Zoe together because he wanted to be Zoe… he wanted to be the one who matched with Evan. The birthmark itching, and the aching heart was all explained. Because as Evan hugged him, his heart felt whole again. “I know…”

“Wh-why do things have to just… suck?” Evan asked, looking up to Jared. 

“I don’t know, Evan. I really don’t know.” He replied, truthfully. 

The two went quiet. The only sounds came from the two breathing, the buzzing of the lights in the bathroom, and Evan’s occasional sniffle. Jared looked down to Evan.   
  
“I don’t think that either of us want to go back to class.” Jared said. “Do you want to skip? We can just go chill in my car. Maybe put on some of that calming music that you like?”

Evan moved out of the hug. “Sk-skip? I’ve… never skipped before. M-my mom’ll get mad.”

Jared shook his head. “I’ve skipped so many fuckin’ times, Evan, and my mom doesn’t know about any of the times. You’re safe, dude.”

Evan bit his lip, before nodding. “Okay… I like the sound of that.”


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> jared and evan sit in jared's car, and chat.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> d a bs

The two walked to Jared’s car. Evan sat in the passenger seat, and Jared in the driver’s. Jared had given the AUX cord to Evan, so that he could put on whatever music he wanted. He decided on some calming lo-fi. It was something that Jared wouldn’t expect Evan to be into, but at the same time, totally would. 

“Thank you, Jared… for everything.” Evan said, glancing over to Jared. “Just… thank you for asking me if I’m alright. And-and coming to comfort me. It means a lot me, and-and I just want you to know that.” 

Jared smiled softly. His heart raced against his chest. Since the discovery of his feelings towards Evan, his heart had been fluttering and his face had been red. Jared was shocked that Evan hadn’t pointed out the sudden colour in his cheeks. “You don’t need to thank me, Evan.”

Evan closed his eyes, and leaned into his seat. “I do need to thank you, though. If it weren’t for you I’d probably just be bottling everything up right now.”

Jared looked over to Evan, and moved to put a hand on his shoulder. As his skin met Evan’s body, there was a new feeling, and sight. More of a sharp pain, and a flash of white. Jared moved back in his seat, and pulled his hand away. His breathing was heavy.

Evan, had seen and felt the same thing. His eyes darted open, and he looked to Jared. “Did-- did you--- see that?” 

Jared nodded frantically. “Y-yeah… I-I did.”

“What the fuck w-was that?” Evan questioned. He looked to his hand, and reached out to touch Jared. The same thing happened again. Jared flinched, and raised an eyebrow. 

It dawned on Jared. “Wait-- wait, Evan… you said th-that when you touch your soulmate you f-feel something, right?”

“Jared, are you--”

“Just… listen to me, okay?” Jared took in a breath. “Where’s your birthmark?”

Evan looked down at his hand. “Under my middle knuckle on my right hand…”

Jared’s eyes widened. He swallowed, and reached out his hand for Evan to see. Evan matched his hand up with Jared’s own.   
  
“Holy shit…” Evan ran his hand through his hair. “W-wait--- I just… I need to see this again--” He matched his hand up again. “We…”   


Jared was in shock. In absolute awe. Everything added up now. The blue eyed boy with dirty blonde hair… that was Evan. It had been so obvious. He’d been right in front of him this whole time. “We’re a match..?”

“I-I don’t… I don’t get it--” Evan shook his head. “I-I thought that-- I didn’t think that…”

“Wait, are you disappointed?” Jared asked.

“No! No… no. No, I’m not-- no. I’m just… confused.” Evan reached out to touch Jared. Nothing happened. He hesitated for a moment, before reaching out to hold Jared’s hand. There was a new feeling in Evan’s heart… this was real. He didn’t feel this with Zoe. “You’ve--” He chuckled nervously. “You’ve been my best friend for 12 years and-and I never noticed.”

“ _ We _ never noticed.” Jared corrected. He looked down at their hands, and entwined their fingers. “I-I can’t believe this. But, at the same time I can. I-I’ve been having these, like… fantasies. And-and in all of these fantasies, my soulmate was a blue eyed boy with dirty blonde hair. And… that’s you.”

Evan was staring at their hands. “Jesus Christ… what am I going to tell Zoe?”

“The truth.” Jared said. “Nothing but the truth.”

“But how?” Evan asked. “Like… am I just going to go up to her and-and be like: ‘ _ Haha, sorry, Zoe. I guess our whole relationship was a sham _ !’” 

“Well, don’t put it like that.” Jared said. “Just… just say: ‘I’m sorry, Zoe, but I think we misinterpreted our birthmarks.’”

Evan nodded. “Okay… but, we can do that later, right? I don’t want detention.”

“Understandable.” Jared said.  
  
“I just… I just want to stay here with you. It’s weird to know that my best friend is also my soulmate, but… the more I think about it, it-it just seems so… right.” Evan admitted. “I don’t know. Maybe it’s a soulmate thing. But maybe it’s also the fact that I had a little crush on you for a while…”

“Seriously?” Jared asked. “You had a crush on me?”

“Maybe the universe just… knew we were soulmates, and bestowed a crush on you upon me.” Evan said.

Jared laughed softly. “Maybe.” He gripped Evan’s hand a bit tighter. He was living for this, really. “I had a crush on you, too. Big one, though. For a long time. I’m actually shocked that you never found out.” He admitted. It seemed obvious to Jared, but he supposed Evan was a totally different person.  
  
“I never knew… I guess I’m just oblivious to a lot.” Evan said.

“I guess so.” Jared replied. He went quiet for a few moments, before sighing. “This isn’t weird… right?”   
  
“What do you mean?” Evan asked.

“I mean… us. This.” Jared replied.

“It’ll take some getting used to, yes, but… I don’t think it’s weird. It’s just new. We were just friends for so long, and-and now we’re soulmates, so… it’ll feel odd for a bit, but I think that it’ll just work itself out.” Evan explained.

Jared nodded. “Right. Yeah, we’ll get used to it.”

“It is weird to think that we’re soulmates, though… we seriously never realized? I’m just in shock by our complete stupidity… Jesus, I thought that Zoe was my match. Obviously, she’s not.” Evan sighed, and moved his hand away from Jared’s. He could feel it getting sweaty, and didn’t want Jared to get grossed out or anything. “I should have known better. Zoe and I aren’t compatible… but we… are?”

“I guess so? I mean, I guess it makes sense… we both like some of the same things, and-and are borderline awkward, so. We radiate awkward.” Jared laughed. “I think it makes sense. We’re a good dynamic.”

“Yeah. I guess we kind of are, hey?” Evan smiled. The bell rang, and he sighed. “I guess we should go back to class…”

“No.” Jared shook his head. “I mean, you can… if you want. I was gonna ask if you just wanted to skip the rest of the day? My mom isn’t home… we could just go chill at my place?”

Evan thought for a moment. He never skipped class like this, and he was worried that his mom would kill him… but it would give him time with Jared. So, he nodded. “Okay. That sounds good.”  
  
“Cool.” Jared started his car, and put it into drive, before reaching over to take Evan’s hand again. It felt… right. It was new, and foreign, but seemed like the right thing to do. He couldn’t deny that it felt nice. He didn’t care that Evan’s hand was sweaty… he just wanted to hold it. Jared was just happy to have his situation figured out. Evan and him were soulmates. It didn’t quite yet roll of the tongue, but he figured that soon it would get there.


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> evan and jared go to the kleinman residence

Jared pulled up to his house, and parked in the driveway. Evan looked to the familiar house, and smiled. “It’s been a long time since I’ve been here.”

“Yeah, it has… too long.” Jared replied. He grabbed his bag from the back, and got out of his car, walking over to meet Evan who had gotten out after him. The two made their way up Jared’s driveway, and to the front door. “It hasn’t changed at all, for your information. My mom wanted family pictures done, so… we did those, and they’re hanging on the wall. I guess that’s the only new introduction to our house’s walls. Or, our house in general.”

Evan giggled. “Well, I guess that’s a good thing… I don’t like change. It scares me. Well, drastic changes, I mean… some changes are good.”

“I got you.” Jared unlocked the front door, and pushed it open, letting Jared inside first. Evan smiled to Jared, and stepped inside. He glanced around.  
  
“You’re right, Jared. It hasn’t changed… you do not look happy in those pictures, though.” Evan pointed out. 

“I was fucking tired, and I hate getting pictures taken.” Jared explained. That, and he just rarely wanted to be around his parents. “Anyway. You wanna go up to my room? We can just lay in my bed and watch something.”

“Sounds perfect. I might end up falling asleep.” Evan said. “All of the panicking and shit today made me, like, real tired.”

“We can just nap, too… I could nap.” 

“A nap sounds beyond perfect.” Evan grabbed Jared’s hand. “Lead the way.”

Jared smiled softly to Evan, and did as told, leading Evan up to his bedroom. That, of which, also hadn’t changed. The only new thing was the cork board that held a few cheat codes for games, and some pictures of him and his family that his mom made him put up. 

Evan’s smile never faded as he walked inside. The familiarity of the room just made him feel happy. It was sweet. “It’s nice to step into your room, and see all of the same posters, and stuff. It makes me feel almost… nostalgic.” He looked to the cork board. “That’s new, though. I like that.”

“Thanks. I’m going to put some pictures of us up. I found a shoe box in my closet that has a bunch of, like, pictures my mom printed out from Facebook. And some Polaroids your mom took.” Jared said.

“You’d want to see my face on your cork board? Cute.” Evan complimented. It made Jared’s face flush.   
  
“Shut up.” Jared let go of Evan’s hand, and walked over to his bed, laying down. He patted the spot beside him for Evan. He gratefully took the spot, and stared up at the ceiling. It wasn't weird for them to share a bed. They’d slept over many times together.  
  
“It’s weird, but,” Evan looked over to Jared. “I kind of want to cuddle with you?”

“Why is that weird?” Jared asked.  
  
“I mean… we just found out we were soulmates. Are we moving too fast?”

“Evan, it’s cuddling.” Jared laughed.

“Yeah, but…” 

Jared thought about it, before shaking his head. “No. We’re soulmates. I think it’s just a soulmate thing to feel connected to your… well… soulmate. To want to do romantic things. I mean, hell, I pictured a life with you, Evan.” He admitted.  
  
“A life with me?” Evan questioned.

“Yeah… a house, with a nice garden. A dog, and a kid.” Jared said.

“A kid? You want kids?” Evan asked. He smiled lightly. “I’ve always wanted kids. I wanted to show my dad that I’d be a better father than him.”

“I know you would be.” Jared said.  
  
Evan’s smile brightened a bit. “You’d be a good dad, too, Jare.”   
  
The nickname made Jared’s heart swell. “Thanks. I sure hope that I would be.”

Evan nodded, and yawned. He moved over a small bit, and turned onto his side. He rested his head on Jared’s chest, and stayed close to him. Jared, in return, wrapped his arm under his neck, and draped it over his shoulder. He gently traced shapes into his arm. “I’m going to fall asleep soon, so… I just want to say this before I do. Thank you for today, Jared. I know the day really just started, but it's just nice to be laying here with you, and-and cuddling… and whatnot. Mainly, it’s just nice to have my real soulmate here with me.”

Jared tilted his neck to look at Evan. It wasn’t the most flattering angle, but he didn’t care. He smiled. “I wish we would have found this out sooner.”  
  
“Me too, Jared.” Evan yawned again, and closed his eyes. “Okay. I’m going to try and sleep now. See you whenever we wake up.”

Jared caught onto Evan’s yawn. “Yeah. Sleep good, Ev.”

“I will. You try and get some sleep, too, Jare.”   
  
“I will.” 

Within a few minutes, Evan was out like a light. Jared had taken off his glasses, and put them aside. He closed his eyes, and fell asleep not long after Evan. He hadn’t felt this much comfort in a long time. He never wanted it to end.


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> jared wakes up to his mom coming home

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> there's mentions to physical abuse in this chapter!! please tread with caution.

Jared awoke to the sound of the front door opening, and to his mother calling his name. His eyes darted open, and he moved away from Evan. If his mom saw him like this, she would flip. He sat up, and reached for his glasses, sliding them onto his face. Evan groaned, and opened his eyes slowly.    
  
“Jare?” He yawned, and looked to him. “What’s going on? Are you okay?”

Jared nodded frantically. “Yeah. I’m okay. My mom’s home.” He whispered.

“Jared? Are you upstairs?” Mrs. Kleinman called from downstairs. Jared took in a few structured breaths, and straightened himself out; both physically, and mentally.    
  
“I’ve gotta run downstairs real quick and just see what’s going.” Jared said. He sighed, and got out of bed, walking over to the door to his room. “Pretend you were studying or something.” He opened the door. “Coming, mom!” 

Evan nodded at Jared’s instructions, and got up, and out of bed, walking over to his bag. He took out his Science textbook. “Good luck.” Evan didn’t know everything about Jared’s mom. She didn’t know that there were times where she would get so mad that she would hit Jared. She was nice on the outside, but he figured that he shouldn’t judge a book by its cover.

Jared walked downstairs to greet his mother. She was standing in the kitchen, arms crossed against her chest. “Jared, I thought I asked you to take out the garbage when you got home?”

“Oh, sorry.” Jared said. “It slipped my mind. It was a busy day.”

“Right.” Mrs. Kleinman huffed. “Jared, honey. You have it easy, so don’t even start on the “it was a busy day” bullshit, okay?”

Jared looked down, and walked over to the garbage. He took out the bag, and nodded. “Sorry.”

Mrs. Kleinman hummed. “Yeah.”

“Evan is over.” Jared said. That was all that he would tell her. He was bound to end up with a bruise or two if he told her everything that was going on. He knew that eventually he would have to, but that could wait until he was ready to move out. Which, in retrospect, was only a year or so. 

“It’s been a while since you’ve had him over.” Mrs. Kleinman pointed out. “What’re you gonna do?”

“Study, I guess.”

“Good. Good, sounds good. I’ll leave you to that.”

“Cool.” Jared tied up the garbage, and lifted it. Then, he walked outside, and threw it into the bigger bin that was near the gate to the back alley. He walked back inside afterwards, and past his mother. 

“Jared,” She called after him. “Don’t you two be getting into anything up there.”

“Yeah.” Jared nodded, and traveled back upstairs. He walked into his room, and closed the door, locking it. He smiled over to Evan, and made his way over to the bed, laying down next to him. “We have some time alone, now.”

“Won’t your mom get mad if she comes up and sees that the door is locked?” Evan asked.

Jared shrugged. “Who cares. I want to cuddle.”

“Okay…” Evan couldn’t resist cuddling with Jared again. He moved over, and rested his head against Jared’s chest against, closing his eyes. Jared wrapped his arms around him, and yawned. 

“I think I’m going to go back to sleep.” Jared said.

“Me too.” Evan replied. He kept his eyes closed, and cuddled up closer to him. “Wake me up if anything happens.”

“Will do.” Jared answered. He held Evan close, and let the boy fall asleep once again. Before Jared knew it, he was drifting off as well. It wasn’t that he was tired, it was just that he was so comfortable laying here with Evan. It all just felt right. Like Evan was the missing piece of his own puzzle. 

He supposed that actually was the case, seeing as the two were soulmates. Jared’s whole perspective on soulmates was changed thanks to Evan. He owed it all to him.

Now all that was left to do was tell Zoe the truth. He wondered how long that would play on for. He knew that Evan wasn’t the most confrontational person. Jared would probably have to help him. Not that that was a bad thing whatsoever. 

All that Jared knew was that he really liked Evan, and the more that he thought about it… the more he realized how big this crush actually was. He had a crush on him in middle school, and going on into high school. It faded for a bit, and had now returned. It was weird to think about, but, it was nice. It was nice to finally have his soulmate, and to know that his soulmate was someone that he could actually get along with, and find comfort in.  
  
Jared smiled softly to himself, and slowly started to descend further into his sleep. And soon, he was out. And he wouldn’t wake up for a while.    



	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> jared's mother comes up to investigate evan and jared's situation  
> jared tells her two truths, and a lie.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> OKAY OKAY SO BEWARE THIS CHAPTER MENTIONS ABUSE! PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE READ WITH CAUTION!

Jared awoke once again. It was about 10:00, and his mother was knocking at the door. “Jared? Jared, why is your door locked? What are you guys doing in there?” 

He felt his breath catch in his throat. Evan had wrapped his arms tight around him while they slept, so Jared was not in a good spot. He desperately tried to wiggle free from Evan’s grip, but it was difficult. He was being held close to Evan’s chest, and whereas it was a wonderful feeling, it was also terrifying knowing that his mother was standing right outside the door. 

“Ev--” Jared shook his shoulder. “Evan, wake up.” He whispered. His mother continued to knock on the door, and ask Jared questions, getting more pissed as the moments passed.

Evan groaned, and shook his head. “No…”

“Evan, please.” Jared begged. “Ev, my mom is right outside. I need to get up. Please.”

“Five more minutes…” Evan replied, drousily. 

“No. No, I can’t give you five more minutes.” Jared pushed himself away from Evan, which startled him awake. He looked to Jared with wide eyes. Both of their hearts were racing at a mile a minute. “Pretend you were studying.”

Evan swallowed, and sat up, reaching down onto the floor to grab the textbook that he had fallen off the bed as they slept. Thankfully, Jared’s floors were carpeted, which somewhat muffled the textbook falling… well, maybe… maybe the textbook falling was the reason Mrs. Kleinman was upstairs.

Jared got out of bed, and straightened himself out. He unlocked the door, and opened it, looking to his mother with a forced smile. “Sorry. We had music on.”

“Why was your door locked?” She peeked inside. “Hi, Evan.”  
  
“Hi, Mrs. Kleinman.”

“Jared?” Mrs. Kleinman looked to her son.

“It was locked?” Jared questioned. “Sorry. I didn’t realize.”

“How do you not realize that a door is locked?” Mrs. Kleinman asked.

“I… must have hit the lock?” Jared took a shot. Mrs. Kleinman rolled her eyes, and crossed her arms. She was clearly mad. You could practically see steam flowing out of her ears.  
  
“Right.” Mrs. Kleinman shook her head. “How do I know that you two weren’t doing drugs, or something?”

“Who do you think we are? Criminals? We’re underage, mom.” Jared replied.

“You’re also teenagers, and are getting into that shit now. It’ll rot your brain. Have you been doing drugs, Jared Kleinman? Answer your mother.”

“No.”  
  
“I don’t believe you. Why else would your door be locked?” Mrs. Kleinman asked. “Jesus Christ, Jared. I can’t trust you at all anymore.”

“We were studying, mom. That’s it. No drugs.” Jared said. 

“Really? What were you studying for?”

“English. We have a Hamlet quiz tomorrow.” Jared retorted. Evan and him didn’t even share an English class. The only classes the two shared were History, and Math. “Big Hamlet quiz. We figured we’d cram in the most knowledge we could, uh, store.”

“I thought that Evan’s English teacher was Mrs. Bowman? Your’s is Mr. Richard.” Mrs. Kleinman caught on right away. Jared swallowed.

“He switched?” Jared offered.  
  
“I know you’re lying to me, Jared.” Mrs. Kleinman shook her head. “Why are you such a fucking liar? You’re so… mysterious. You run off to your room every night, and don’t come out. You could be doing crack for all I know!”   
  
“Jesus Christ, mom. Do you not have any fucking faith in me? I must be such a fucking mistake, huh? Heaven forbid I want to have a nice night studying with my friend, right?! I’m the worst kid in the world, right, mom?” Jared shook his head, and slammed the door. He locked it, and leaned against it, his eyes welling with tears. “Climb out the window, Evan. Just-- just crawl onto the awning, and-and jump off onto the grass, or-or something.”

“Are you crazy, Jared?” Evan asked in a hushed tone. His eyes were filled with fear. 

“Jared William Kleinman! Open this door right now, or so help me!” Mrs. Kleinman pounded on the door. Jared shook. This wasn’t going to end well. He needed to think of something.

“What am I supposed to do, Evan?” Tears slipped down Jared’s cheeks. Evan hadn’t seen Jared look this vulnerable since he came out to him. 

“Tell her the truth.” Evan said.

“What?” Jared shook his head. “No. No, that’ll just make all of this worse.”

“What’s there to lose?” 

“Uh, maybe my life?” Jared questioned. Mrs. Kleinman was still banging on the door.  
  
“Jared! If you don’t open this door in thirty seconds, I will get the spare key!” She yelled. Furious. Flames were practically shooting into Jared’s room from under the door. She started to count down from thirty.

Evan bit his lip. “Just say whatever comes to your mind-- please, please don’t get hurt…”

“No promises.”

“I don’t care that Evan is in there, Jared! Twenty-five!” Jared unlocked the door, and opened it, looking to his mother with teary eyes. She took a step back, still furious looking. “Well?”

“I found my soulmate today.” Jared said.

Mrs. Kleinman’s features softened. “What?”

“I found my soulmate. My match.” Jared technically wasn’t lying. 

“Oh-- oh, my god, Jared. Honey, that’s amazing,” Mrs. Kleinman cracked a smile, as if nothing had happened previously. “What’s her name?”

_ Her _ . Her name. Jared’s heart sank, and he glanced back to Evan for a moment. The other boy had an expectant look on his face, as if he didn’t know about Sharron Kleinman’s perspective on homosexuality, and same-sex couples. “Eva Henderson.” Jared said, turning back to his mother.

“Eva Henderson…” Mrs. Kleinman thought about the name. She pondered it, before smiling again. “Oh! Isn’t she that girl who runs the yearbook committee?”

“Sure.” Jared replied.

“Oh, Jared-- sweetheart, this is amazing. Still upset, and think that you’re doing drugs, but… this is fantastic! I have to go phone your dad! Oh, John will be so excited.” She kissed her son’s forehead, and smiled to him once more, before rushing downstairs to phone her husband. John Kleinman, who was currently on his way home from work.

Jared watched his mom walk away, and turned to face Evan. He opened his mouth to speak, but the look on Evan’s face made him pause.    
  
Evan didn’t know why he was hurt. He understood why Jared didn’t want to tell his mother, but at the same time, he thought that he’d want her to know. Even if things went south, Jared could move in with him. 

Jared, on the other hand, didn’t think that way. He felt like he would be killed if he told his mom the truth. He didn’t think that Heidi Hansen would want him to stay at their place. “Evan, I’m sorry.”

“Are you embarrassed of me?”

“Ev, no--”

“Really?”

“I was scared.” Jared said. He swallowed, and looked back to the door. “I couldn’t tell her.”

Evan looked down, and crossed his arms. “Yeah.”

“Please don’t be mad at me. You don’t know what she--”

“What, Jared?” Evan looked up at him. “What she would say? Do? You can’t act on impulse. Maybe she’d be different knowing that I’m your soulmate. I was also your best friend, Jared. Maybe it’d be different.”

Jared looked down. Maybe Evan was right? “Fine.” He looked back to Evan. “She wants the truth? I’ll give her the truth.”

Evan’s eyes widened, and he stood up. He walked over to him. “Jare-- Jared, you don’t have to, I’m sorry-- I-I don’t know what I was--”

“No. You’re right, Evan.” Jared said. “Maybe it will be different.” He turned on his heels, and left the room. He left Evan alone, letting him watch as he walked downstairs to confront his mother and tell her the legitimate truth. That Evan and him were soulmates.

“Mom.” Jared spoke. Mrs. Kleinman was on the phone with her husband. 

“John, sweetie, I’ll be right back. Jared’s here.” Mrs. Kleinman hung up the call, and looked back to Jared. “What’s up, honey?”

“I lied.” Jared said.

“What?” Mrs. Kleinman raised an eyebrow. “Excuse me?”

“I lied. About my soulmate.” 


	11. Chapter 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> jared's mom finds out the truth.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HGNGNG MORE ABUSE TW!! IM SO SORRY!!   
> ALSO SLURS.

“What are you talking about, Jared?” Mrs. Kleinman questioned, putting her hands on her hips. She looked annoyed. She just went out of her way to call her husband, and tell him the news, and now Jared was confirming that it wasn’t true?

“Well, you see, uh… their initials are, uh, E.H… but, it’s not Eva Henderson. She’s… not real. She doesn’t even host yearbook. I think that Evelyn Hawes runs yearbook.” Jared said. “Uh. My soulmate, his initials are E.H.”

“Excuse me… his?” Mrs. Kleinman’s eyebrows furrowed. “His?”

“Y-yeah. His.”

“You’ve gotta be fucking kidding me.” Mrs. Kleinman shook her head.   
  
“My soulmate is Evan, mom.” 

“Get out of my fucking house.” Mrs. Kleinman looked to Jared. She was once again furious. Fuming mad. “I knew that you were hiding something from me, Jared. I knew that you were hiding something disastrous. Everything that you said up there, Jared, was true. You are a mistake, Jared. You’re a mistake, and I wish that your father and I never even thought about having you.”

Jared’s eyes filled with tears again. His fingers rolled up into fists as his arms hung by his sides. 

Mrs. Kleinman took a few steps towards Jared. She was a fireball. The heat radiated off of her. She grabbed Jared by the collar of his shirt, and pushed him backwards. He fell against the wall, and winced, bringing his arms up to protect him. “I didn’t raise a fucking faggot. Jared Kleinman, you-- you are a terrible, terrible person. And Evan--”

“Don’t bring him into this.” 

“What are you going to do, Jared?” Mrs. Kleinman questioned. “Call the cops? Divorce us?”

Jared didn’t know what to say. He just curled up against the wall.

“Heidi Hansen was once a woman I held a lot of respect for. And now that I know that her son is a faggot, and is supposedly dating my son… if I can even call you that. This is ridiculous.”

Jared adjusted himself, and stood up straight. He puffed out his chest, and looked to his mother. “Do not bad mouth the Hansen’s.”  
  
“Or what, Jared?” 

“Or… or I’ll--”

“That’s what a thought. Pathetic.” She raised her hand, slapping Jared across his cheek. Jared gripped his cheek. He wanted to fight back, but didn’t want the cops to get involved. He shook badly. He pushed her back, and ran up the stairs to his room, slamming the door. His mother yelled slurs to him as he entered his room. This was terrifying. This was absolutely terrifying.

Jared locked his door, and looked over to Evan, who was curled up on the bed, whispering ‘I’m sorry’ over and over again. Jared bit his lip, and rushed over to him, sitting by him. 

“Ev, Ev-- Ev, we need to get out of here.” Jared explained frantically. “We need to go, Evan. Please. Please, we need to go.” He begged.

Evan just continued to whisper continuous apologies.

Tears fell down Jared’s cheeks, and he choked on a sob. “Sit up, Ev. Please, sit up. Please.”

Evan’s eyes opened, and he looked to Jared. They were red, and filled with tears. His cheeks were stained, and his face was blotchy. Jesus Christ. This was his fault. He shouldn’t have obeyed. They would have been safe. “J-Jare-- Jared, your face-- it-it’s red. Did she…?”

Jared nodded slowly. “Yeah-- yeah, she did. But I’m okay! I’m okay. I’m fine.”

“No y-you’re not.” Evan corrected.

“We just need to get out of here.”

Jared got up, and grabbed an extra backpack from his closet. He began to stuff articles of clothing into it. He always kept this bag prepared, just in case something like this went down, and he had to move in with his aunt in New York. Maybe that would be the case tonight.

Downstairs, Mrs. Kleinman was phoning Heidi Hansen, who wouldn’t receive the message until she got home from work. But, Mrs. Kleinman was screaming, and calling both Evan and Jared slurs. The slurs hurt more than the slap to the face. The slurs were a slap to the face, as well as a kick in the teeth. 

Evan watched as Jared packed. “I-I’m so sorry, J-Jared-- I-I didn’t… I didn’t want things to--”

“I know.” Jared said. He sniffled, and zipped up the bag once his entire closet was practically cleaned out. A few things remained, but he figured that they would be on the lawn as of tomorrow. And once Jared collected all of his things, there would be some sort of restraining order against him. Jared took once last article of clothing out of his closet; a sweater that he picked up on his tour of NYU. He tossed it to Evan. “You’ll need the comfort.”

Evan caught the sweater, and looked at it. “Thank you.” He put it on over his button up, and grabbed his own bag. Jared, grabbed both his school bag, and his new-practically-homeless-bag. He threw them both around his shoulders, and grabbed his keys from the bedside table, as well as his phone. 

“Come on.” Jared said. He grabbed Evan’s hand once his phone was in his pocket, and lead him downstairs. Evan was shaking, and so was Jared; the two of them were terrified. This was terrifying.

Mrs. Kleinman was still yelling at them as they got their shoes on. Soon, though, they were out of the house, and rushing to Jared’s car. Jared threw his things into the back, and got into the driver’s seat. His vision was blurry because of the tears in his eyes. He shouldn’t drive yet. 

Evan got in, and buckled up, hugging himself. “J-Jared?”

Jared started the car before completely breaking down. He sobbed, and pressed his hand against the horn. “Fuck you!” He screamed. Evan flinched, and moved away from him a small bit. Though, as soon as Jared started to sob again, he reached over and put a hand on his shoulder. “This is so fucked, Evan.” He said, shakily.

“I-I know.” Evan moved his hand down to hold onto Jared’s. “Everything is fucked.”

Jared sniffled, and broke down completely again, resting his head against the steering wheel. 

“Y-your dad doesn’t own guns still… right?” Evan asked. He was scared that his mom would come out and kill them, or something.

Jared froze, and let go of Evan’s hand, immediately moving the gear from park to reverse. He pulled out of the driveway, and onto the street. There, he put the car into drive, and started in the direction of Evan’s.


	12. Chapter 12

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> evan brings jared home to meet with heidi, who had received the call from mrs. kleinman

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> please continue to read with caution..............  
> folks say adam.. why do you polish a crib when you dont have a kid and even if you did have a kid this crib is too precious for placing a baby inside so it simply exists to remind you your sense of perfection is just a reflection th

Jared parked in front of Evan’s house. “There. I’m dropping you off. I need to get out of here.” He said, looking over to his soulmate, who still looked beyond terrified. 

“Wait, what?” Evan asked. He looked to Jared with complete confusion, and worry. He didn’t want Jared to be alone right now… and honestly? He didn’t want to be alone himself, either.

“I need to get off the grid.” Jared replied. He looked forward. “I’m going to drive to New York and stay with my aunt, and her wife.”

“Jared, no. That’s a death wish.” Evan said. He reached over, and took Jared’s hand, holding it tightly within his own. “I’m not going to let you go to New York. Not alone, anyway. Stay here, at least for the night, Jare. I can’t let you be alone right now.”

“Are you saying that I’m going to kill myself if I’m alone?” Jared questioned.  
  
“No.” Evan shook his head. “I just know that… that if I were you, I would want company right now.”

Evan was right. He was completely right. He didn’t want to be alone right now. Jared gripped Evan’s hand, and swallowed roughly. “Just for the night.”

“Thank you. Come on.” Evan let go of Jared’s hand, and got out of the car. He grabbed his bag from the back, as well as Jared’s own. 

Jared took a moment, before taking his keys out of the ignition, and getting out of the car. He walked over to meet Evan, and took his bags from him. Heidi’s run-down Saturn View was in the driveway. Shit. His heart raced against his chest.

Evan opened the door, which he knew was unlocked thanks to his mother being home. As they entered, she was pacing the living room, biting her fingernails as she did so. She looked exhausted, and beyond worried. She looked over to the two boys as they entered, and let out a shaky, relieved breath, rushing over to hug the both of them.

“I was so scared. I was so worried. Are you boys okay-- that’s a stupid question. Oh, my god. Oh, my god,” Heidi looked to Jared, and held his shoulders. “Jared, honey, I am so sorry. Oh, my god.” 

She sounded like a broken record. Heidi hugged Jared close, and then kissed his forehead. 

“I got a call at work from your mom. She was screaming, and-and… and it was the worst thing I ever experienced. Did she hurt you? I’ll kill her if she hurt you-- oh, my god. Jared, your cheek is red. Did she..?” Jared hadn’t noticed it before, but Heidi’s eyes were completely full of tears. And whatever mascara she had been wearing, was now running how her face.    


“She, uh… she hit me.” Jared admitted. Heidi shook her head, and let out a sob. She had obviously been holding everything in. Heidi was never one to cry.

“Did she hurt you, Ev?” Heidi looked to her son, who was crying as he watched his mother hug onto Jared. 

Evan shook his head. “Not unless you count mentally.”

Heidi pulled back, and wiped her face. She stood up straight, and looked to both of the boys. “This is terrible.” She said. “This is just… this is just fucking terrible.” 

“Mom--” Evan was going to say something, but was clearly at a loss for words.  
  
“I-I don’t understand how someone could be so cruel.” Heidi said.  
  
Jared looked down to hide the fact that he was crying. “Me neither.”

“Jesus Christ, Jared-- I-I can help you get a restraining order, or-or get her arrested. This is illegal! This is completely illegal.”  
  
“I-I don’t want anyone to get involved.” Jared said. “If CPS gets involved, then there’ll be questions, and I really don’t want questions right now.”

“Okay. Okay, no one has to get involved yet. Boys, this is terrible. I-I just… Jesus.” Heidi shook her head, and walked back into the living room to pace. 

“Can Jared stay here until he finds a place to stay?” Evan asked. He wanted to change the subject from just… crying, and swearing.

“Oh, my god-- yes. Yes, of course. Yes, honey.” Heidi stopped pacing, and nodded quickly. “You didn’t even need to ask.”

Heidi had always been like a second mom to Jared. She’d take him in when he had a scrape, or when she made lemonade. There was this one year that Evan wanted to go away to a camp up at Ellison, but wouldn’t go unless Jared went, so, Heidi paid for Jared’s fee. Truth be told, she was more of a mom than his own ever was. “Thank you so much, Heidi.”

“Of course, Jared.” Heidi swallowed a sob, and sniffled. “You boys go upstairs and try to get settled, okay? Do you want tea?”

The both shook their heads. Any other day, maybe tea would be wonderful, but this wasn’t a tea moment. 

“Okay. That’s okay.” Heidi said. “Just go upstairs and get settled. Jared, your mom said that your stuff would be on the lawn tomorrow. I’ll stop by on my way home, and pick up whatever’s there. You boys can stay home from school. I’ll call the school and just say that, uh, we’re going on a trip somewhere for the rest of the week, or something.”

Jared sucked in a shaky breath, and hesitated for a moment, before walking over to Heidi. He hugged her tightly, and cried into her shoulder. “Thank you.”

Heidi hugged him back, holding him close. “Don’t thank me, Jared. There’s no need to thank me.”


	13. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> okay things are gonna die down a little bit for a few chapters so. .. . no more warnings for now!

Jared laid beside Evan in his bed. He just stared up the ceiling, counting the glowstars. He didn’t speak, and neither did Evan. They had nothing to say. There was no words that could be said right now. The two were too scared to hold each other, too. So, they stayed on their backs, staring up at the glowstars on the ceiling. 

Heidi had went to bed, though, she wouldn’t be sleeping. Her mind was racing with thoughts. Thoughts about Jared, and about Evan, and about Mrs. Kleinman. How terrible everything was. How absolutely fucked all of this was. Heidi found herself crying again as she stared up the bland ceiling that hung above her room. 

She had phoned the school already, and left a message. She didn’t say that they were going on a trip. In fact, she told the truth. Heidi wouldn’t tell Jared that, though. She did say in the message, though, not to worry about calling the cops, having already done so… another lie. Evan got his ability to lie from his mother. It wasn’t the most daunting quality, but it was something.

Evan was currently fighting back the urge to cry, or panic, or both. He glanced over to Jared, and sniffled, hesitantly moving over to cuddle up to him. “I’m sorry.”

“Promise me something, Ev?” Jared asked. Those were the first words that he had said in the past hour.

“Okay.” Evan moved onto his stomach, and rested his chin on Jared’s chest.

“Please never leave my side. No matter what happens.” Jared said, looking to Evan.   
  
Evan’s heart broke. It was strange to hear this from someone who once claimed to just be his family-friend. Regardless of those thoughts, he moved up a small bit. His face was fairly close to Jared’s. He nodded. “I promise.” He leaned down, and quickly pecked Jared’s lips. It was awkward. It was the first time that he’d kissed him.

Jared smiled softly to Evan, and put a hand on his cheek. He leaned forward, and pressed a longer kiss to Evan’s lips. It was gentle, and sweet, but full of appreciation. 

Evan was taken aback for a moment. Here he was, kissing the boy who had just lost everything.

Jared didn’t see it that way. He hadn’t lost everything. He’d only lost something… in fact, he was gaining everything. Evan was his everything. And now matter the circumstance, that would always be the case. They were soulmates, and that was enough.

 


	14. Chapter 14

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> jared has a nightmare.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> o ka y nevermind im sorry one more warning ... just uh h h gun tw??? i guess????  
> its only like a five paragraph chapter though so ssksdasd

Jared was shocked that he had fallen asleep. Though, maybe it was the kiss. He wasn’t expecting his sleep to be a good one, though. And, it wasn’t.

His nightmares seemed so real. They were almost lucid. It was like he had control of everything that was happening. 

The nightmare started out like how Evan and Jared’s night did. By Jared’s mom knocking on the door, and starting a fight with him. It was almost word for word. And by the time that it reached the rising action of the nightmare, it was their same fight about Evan being his soulmate. Jared would run upstairs, and pack his bags, and give Evan his NYU sweater. 

The ending was different, though. Jared’s mom had received a gun from his dad’s old gun rack. The guns were never loaded, in fact, there were replicas from World War I. In this nightmare, though, they were functional. By the time they reached Jared’s car, his mother was coming after them with a rifle. Jared tried to get away, but--

Jared awoke with a gasping breath. He sat up straight in bed, and took a moment to catch his breath. Evan woke up alongside him, and sat up with him, wrapping an arm around his shoulder. Jared started crying again, and turned, wrapping his arms tightly around Evan. He sobbed into his shoulder, and stayed like that until the sun rose.


	15. Chapter 15

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> jared talks to evan about the nightmare, then rants about his relationship with his mother.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> idk if this needs a tw?? but i guess just,, read with caution idk

“I’m sorry for keeping you up.” Jared said. He sniffled, and wiped his face. It was like he hadn’t stopped crying whatsoever. His face was stained with tears, and his head ached. His eyes were a bright red, and the bags under his lower lid were insane. He was exhausted in more ways than one. 

Evan shook his head. “Don’t apologize.” He said. “I promised you that I would stay by your side no matter what. Even if that means staying up all night. What happened?”  
  
“Nightmare.” Jared said. “I haven’t had one in so long. I guess that last night was just enough to spark one.” He sighed.

“What was it about?” He was full of questions. Maybe it was rude to ask all of them, but he wanted to help. Of course, Evan was still upset about everything that happened, but Jared was the one who should be most upset. “You don’t have to answer.”

“No, it’s okay.” Jared took in a few breaths. “It was weird. It felt so real… it was like my brain was just-- it was just replaying the whole thing. Like a movie, almost. It replayed it out word for word; the initial fight, and then me lying about you.” He swallowed roughly. “But when it came to me actually letting her what happened… she, uh-- she…” 

“She..?” Evan moved his hand up and down Jared’s arm.

“We were getting out to the car, and-and she came out, and she had one of my dad’s old, like… replica guns. They never worked. The weren’t real. But, in the dream they did, and-and… and she…” Jared’s eyes filled with tears again, and he buried his face into Evan’s shoulder. “She killed us.”

Evan didn’t know what to say. He was frozen. He wrapped his arms around Jared, and held him close. The whole scene brought him back to when Jared came out to him. How he was crying, and shaking, and begging him not to say anything to his parents… he felt terrible for complaining about Jared not telling his mother the truth. “I should have never said anything, Jared. I should have let you keep this a secret. I’m so sorry.”

“You’re my soulmate, Evan. She was going to find out eventually.” Jared said. He pulled back, and looked to Evan. “It was only a matter of time before something like this happened. It was set in stone.”

“I’m still sorry.” Evan said.

Jared shook his head. “Don’t be. It’s not your fault, Evan. If it’s anyone’s fault, it’s her’s for being such a fucking bitch.”

“She is a bitch.” 

Jared sighed. “I don’t even know why I’m so upset about this. I hated my parents, Ev. They were terrible people. My dad was always working, and my mom was stuck up. She always wanted everything to be perfect. Perfect grades, so I could get into a perfect school, with perfect people, and land a perfect job… perfect, perfect, perfect. That was her favourite word.” 

Evan listened with a frown. He didn’t know about any of this, really. He just figured that Mrs. Kleinman was a nice lady who happened to get mad sometimes.

“My whole life was a mistake to her,” Jared continued. “I wasn’t perfect, and I will never be perfect. She pushed the whole ideal onto me. ‘ _ Jared, you need to do this, and do that, or else you won’t make it anywhere in life _ ’, ‘ _ Jared you need to be religious or else you’ll go to hell _ ’...”

“Jared, you don’t need to go on, you know. This has to be hard on you.” 

“I think that hard is an understatement.” Jared said. “I can trust you with all of this, right? You won’t tell anyone?”

“Jared, I have nobody to tell. Everything is safe with me.” Evan reassured.

Jared nodded. “Okay. Thank you, Ev.” He took a few moments to breathe. It was good to get all of this out there. It helped him forget about all of the shit that was happening currently. “Don’t even get me started on the whole, ‘you need to be straight’ thing. I have so much internalized homophobia thanks to my parents. I hate that I’m gay. The only good thing that it’s brought me so far has been you.” 

Evan smiled faintly. “That’s sweet, Jared.”

Jared shrugged. “Yeah. I guess.”

“I’d say that you’re pretty amazing, too.” Evan said. 

Jared smiled a small bit. It was the first time he had smiled since he found out that Evan and him were soulmates. “I just realized that I never asked you to be my boyfriend.”

“I don’t really think that it’s necessary. I mean, we kissed last night, Jared.” Evan chuckled sadly. He couldn’t find it within himself to chuckle happily. “We’re soulmates, Jare.”

“You wanna go out with me?”

“Yes.”

“Cool.”

Jared couldn’t help but laugh at himself. He sniffled, and sighed. “I shouldn’t be upset about my mom kicking me out. I should be glad. I should celebrate, really… it’s a new beginning for me. The journey starts here. I get to be myself now, rather than my mom’s perfect son.”

“Good. I like normal Jared. Perfect Jared is kind of a dick.” 

“Believe me, Evan. I know.”


	16. Chapter 16

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> heidi starts breakfast for the boys.   
> jared can tell that he's falling in love.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> a calmer chapter!

Heidi had finally gotten to sleep at around 6. She stayed up all night, just thinking, and thinking, and thinking some more. She must have thought so hard that she fell asleep. It was 10:30 in the morning when Heidi woke up. She walked down the hallway to Evan’s room, and knocked on the door, before entering. Inside, the two boys were talking. “Do you boys want breakfast? How do chocolate chip pancakes sound?”

Heidi rarely made breakfast for herself, or for Evan. She was either in a rush to get to work, or to her classes, or Evan was going to school. She felt bad for not being around much. But, she was a single mother, working her ass of to raise Evan. She couldn’t complain, though. Heidi Hansen was very positive. She always wore a smile… unless her son’s newfound soulmate was being kicked out of his house, then she wasn’t smiling. She also didn’t smile at death, or when she heard about politics (unless it was good politics). 

“Breakfast sounds good. And so do chocolate chip pancakes.” Evan replied. Jared nodded in agreement.

“How are you boys feeling this morning?” She asked. They seemed a little bit better. Especially Jared. He looked like he had cried, but he wore a small smile right now, and that was nice to see.

“A bit better.” Jared said.

“Yeah.” Evan agreed.  
  
“Good! That’s good. Well, I’ll be in the kitchen. I’ll call you two when everything’s ready, okay?” Heidi said. The boys nodded. So, Heidi went downstairs and grabbed everything she needed to make pancakes. Specifically, chocolate chip pancakes, which Heidi really only made for special occasions, and holidays, but… today seemed like a good day for a pick-me-up kind of pancake.

Upstairs, the boys were still talking. 

“I kind of hope that my mom gets a restraining order against me. It means that I won’t see her face ever again. I hate her so much, Ev.” He sighed, and laid down, resting his head in Evan’s lap. He looked up to the ceiling. “She hit me sometimes. When she’d get really mad. My dad talked about getting a divorce at one point, but she begged him to stay. She’s probably got a couple fuckin’ screws loose.”

“No doubt.” Evan said. He moved his hand to comb it through Jared’s hair. “I’m glad that you’re looking at this with a more positive view point.”

“Believe me, I’m still beyond upset, but… there’s a new glimmer of hope. I think that you’re the real beginning of my brand new start, Ev.”   
  
Evan raised an eyebrow. “You really think?”

“Yeah.” Jared nodded, and sat up. “You’ve changed me for the better.”

“Jesus, Jared. We’ve only known we’re soulmates for a day.”

“Yeah, well, you mean a lot to me, Ev.” Jared shrugged, and smiled to Evan. You knew he was being sincere. He was smiling, while around him the world was seemingly burning. It showed his gratitude for the boy. Evan really did mean a lot to him. He’d known him for years, and even though they weren’t in a relationship then, he still meant a lot to him.

Evan smiled back faintly, and leaned forward, pressing a soft kiss to Jared’s lips. His eyes fluttered closed, and he kissed the boy to his heart’s content. It wasn’t much, but it lingered. Neither Jared, or Evan had ever kissed someone previous to last night, so the kiss was a tad sloppy… they’d get used to it. Jared reached up, and held Evan’s face, kissing him back with the same amount of gentleness. 

The two only pulled back when Heidi called them down for breakfast. Jared laughed softly. “I could get used to that.”

“What? Kissing me?” Evan asked.

Jared nodded. “Yeah. It’s nice.” He was easily falling in love with Evan. Maybe a bit too soon, but, he knew it was going to happen eventually anyway. “C’mon, let’s go downstairs.”


	17. Chapter 17

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> evan and jared have breakfast with heidi. they all talk. heidi definitely takes the two being in a relationship 100% better than jared's own mother.

Evan and Jared made their way downstairs, and into the kitchen, where the sound of Heidi’s soft humming to a song that neither of the boys could recognize, and the smell of freshly baked pancakes filled the room. Heidi turned when she heard the boys enter. “Go have a seat, boys. I’ve got this covered.”

The two complied, and went and sat at the kitchen table. Evan sat next to Jared, reaching over to hold his hand as they sat and waited for Heidi to serve the pancakes. The table had already been set with plates, utensils, cups, and whatever else they needed; butter, syrup, orange juice, milk, and the optional whipped cream. On the table, there was also a plate of bacon, which Jared wouldn’t eat. His family were very strict to the Jewish religion, and culture. Of course, Jared didn’t have to partake in that anymore, but it would take a while to get used to it completely. 

Heidi walked over with a plate of pancakes, and set them down in the centre of the table. She sat down across from the two, and smiled softly. “I never did say congratulations. I figured that last night wouldn’t be the best time to say it.” She said. “You two make a good couple. It may take me awhile to get used to seeing Jared as more than just a friend to you, though, Ev.”

Evan chuckled softly. “Me too. It’s still weird, but… weird in a good way.”

“Well,” Jared said. “It’s just the beginning of the second day. Besides, things were iffy yesterday.”

Heidi hummed in agreement, and reached over to grab a pancake, putting it on her plate. “You two are lucky. Mark and I weren’t a match, but got married anyway. Huge mistake on my part.” She sighed. Mark left when Evan was five, taking whatever the hell he wanted, and moving to start a real life with his real soulmate in Chicago. “I should have known better, but, at least I get to see my son start a life with his soulmate.”

“You’ll find your match someday, mom.” Evan said. 

Heidi shrugged. She wasn’t in any rush. “Maybe.”

Jared reached over and took a pancake for himself, watching as Heidi began to lather butter and syrup over her own. “Thank you for taking this so good, Miss. Hansen-- er, Heidi. Sorry. Old habit.” His parents always made him call anyone who showed authority to him by their last name. It was his mother’s way of showing that they were important. Heidi was the only person who found it weird.

“It’s okay. And I could never take it any other way. I welcome you into our lives with open arms, Jared. Seeing that you’re with Evan is wonderful.” Heidi said. She never knew about Evan’s sexuality, but it didn’t matter much to her anyway. The same went for Jared. Heidi truthfully didn’t care what a person identified as, so long as they were respectful of others. 

Evan squeezed Jared’s hand under the table, before letting go to grab a pancake. Jared had grabbed the syrup and butter, and had started to prepare it after Evan let go of his hand. “It’s nice to hear that.” Jared said. It was definitely a change of perspective from his mother’s, and that was nice.

Evan took the butter and syrup from Jared once he was finished with it. Soon, all of their pancakes were prepared, and they started to eat.   
  
Jared swallowed a bite. “Please let me know if I start to get on your nerves. I can phone my aunt in New York, and drive up there. She’s the only adult that I came out to. She has always had a spare room ready for me.”  
  
Heidi shook her head. “Jared, you’re staying here whether you like it or not. This is where you should be. Evan is here, and I’m here. This is your home now, Jared.”

“I wish it was as easy as that.” Jared said sadly. It wasn’t that easy. Jared wasn’t Heidi’s son, and legally didn’t live here. He was invading their lives.  
  
“Jared, honey,” Heidi smiled to him. “I promise you that this is your home. At least until high school is over, then maybe you and Evan can move in together or something. For now, though, you’re stuck with us.”

“I appreciate it.” Jared said. 

The rest of the meal was spent in silence, up until they all finished their food. Heidi spoke up again. “I have to go to work soon, boys. Jared, on my way home I’ll pick up whatever is a your parent’s for you. Is there anything specific I should look for?”

“Just my laptop, and the rest of my clothes. The rest is optional.” Jared said.

“Well, I’ll get what I can from the optional stuff.” Heidi replied. She really didn’t want to leave anything. She would feel terrible if she did. Unless it was his bed, or something… that didn’t have to come with her. She was sure that Evan and him would be sharing a room. “Do you boys want me to leave some money for supper?”  
  
“No.” Evan said. “No, it’s fine.”

“I can leave money, Ev. It’s not a big deal.”

“No, we’ll make something.” Evan insisted.  
  
“Alright, well,” Heidi thought for a moment. “We have frozen pizzas, and some other random things in the freezer that you two can make. Just don’t burn the house down.”

Jared chuckled. “We won’t.”

Heidi stood up. “Okay, well, I’m going to go get ready. If you boys wouldn’t mind maybe cleaning up a small bit? Just put the plates in the sink, and I’ll get to them later. You don’t have to go to school. I already called in, so, you’re all set there.”

The two nodded.

“Okay. I’ll be down in a bit, but won’t have much time to visit. So, I love you two. Have a good day, okay? Stay out of trouble.” Heidi walked over to the boys, and kissed each of their heads, then rushed upstairs. She was already running late. She had to be quick.

“Love you, too, mom.” Evan replied. He sighed, and looked to Jared. “She’s great.”

“She really is.” Jared said. “Y’know, she’s always been like a second mom to me.”

“Probably more of a mom to you than your’s ever was.” Evan said.  
  
“She is.” Jared confirmed. “I love your mom. She’s a sweetheart. The world needs more people like her. Maybe if my mom were more like here, then none of this would have happened. I think that she should take a few parenting notes from her.”

Evan laughed sadly. “Yeah.”

Jared stood up, and started to collect plates. Evan did the same, taking whatever leftovers there were into the kitchen, putting saran wrap over their respective plates, and then putting them into the fridge. Jared walked into the kitchen, and put the plates into the sink. Though, he didn’t listen to Heidi’s instructions, and filled the sink with water so he could take at least a little bit of weight off of her shoulders. It was the least that he could do.

“I’ll dry.” Evan said, closing the fridge after putting the milk and orange juice away. He walked over to the sink, and hugged Jared from behind, watching the water flow into the bottom, and the soap form to the top.

Jared let out a soft breath, and put his hands on the ones that rested on his middle. “You’d swear that we’ve been together for years.”

Evan laughed. “Well, we’ve been friends for years… that counts, right?”

“I guess so.” Jared said, laughing softly alongside Evan. This was heartwarming. Evan was exactly what he needed during a time like this. 

Evan let go of Jared, and let out a breath, calming himself down. “Let’s get these dishes started. I want to relax today. Yesterday was so hectic, I just wanted to lay down, and cuddle with you.”

“Those are some words I never thought I would hear you say, Hansen.” Jared chuckled softly. “But, yeah, I’d also love to just… settle down. I’ve stopped thinking about it, but, I know as soon as your mom comes home with my stuff it’s all just going to come flooding back.”

“Yeah…” Evan sighed. “Oh well. We can try to just not think about it right now. Right now, it means nothing. We just need to focus on us.”

“We’re soulmates.” Jared smiled softly. He started to wash the dishes there were in the sink, as well as beside it, passing them over to Evan. “It’s funny how the guy who convinced me to believe in soulmates, is actually my soulmate.”

“I guess some things just turn out that way, huh?” Evan replied. 

Jared nodded. “Yeah. It’s nice. You know, if I could have picked anyone to be my soulmate, it would have been you. Maybe it’s just because of the fact that I had these… unrequited feelings towards you for so long, but, regardless.”

“Well,” Evan leaned over, and kissed Jared’s cheek. It made the both of them smile. They were in their honeymoon phase, this was completely normal. “Now they don’t have to be unrequited.”

“Yeah. Thank god.” Jared finished scrubbing at a plate, and handed it to Evan, who dried it off and put it to the side. 

Evan still had the thought of the fact that he had to tell Zoe at the back of his head. It freaked him out, but he didn’t voice anything. Jared seemed to be in a slightly good mood, which he was kind of shocked by. It was impressive. Evan was terrible at hiding his feelings. Well, unless it was about the girl that he was technically cheating on. 

Zoe was currently texting Evan. She was asking where he was, and where he went yesterday. Why she didn’t see him at lunch. She had a lot of questions. One of them, though, wasn’t ‘are you cheating on me’. Zoe hadn’t noticed that they didn’t click, and didn’t know that her real soulmate was someone other than Evan Hansen. Her real soulmate did live in New Jersey, and did go to their school, though… but it would take Zoe a while to find that out.

The two had finished with the dishes, and had put them away. They had all day to just focus on them. Jared had to focus on not thinking about his mom. It was hard, but so far he was succeeding. And Evan had to not think about his “soulmate”, Zoe. Which, he was also succeeding at. So far, the two were having no trouble at all. Everything was peaches and cream. 


	18. Chapter 18

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> evan stressed about what he's going to tell zoe.

The two had fallen asleep after a short while. Their lack of sleep from the night before had taken it’s toll on them. Evan, was the one who dreamed this time:  
  
Evan and Jared were standing in the hallway. Zoe approached them, and asked Evan where he had been. Evan replied with the truth; that he had been spending time with Jared, and that Jared was going through some things. Zoe had questioned what the said things were. Evan didn’t tell the truth, simply telling her that him and his mom had a fight. 

Somewhere in the sentence, their relationship must have come up. Suddenly, Zoe’s face went pale, and she glared at Evan with hate in her eyes. She went off on him. She was a sobbing mess, yelling, and pulling at her hair. 

Jared had walked away. It was like he didn’t want people to know. 

“How could you do this to me, Evan?” Dream Zoe asked. “How could you?”

Evan woke up, his eyes darting open. Noticing that Jared was beside him, and fast asleep, he didn’t move. He just took a moment to catch his breath, and closed his eyes again. Jared woke up to the feeling, and sound of Evan’s breathing growing quicker. “Ev?” Jared opened his eyes slowly, and turned to look up at him. 

“Did I wake you up?” Evan asked.

“No.” Jared lied. “No, you didn’t. Are you okay?”

Evan couldn’t lie to Jared. “I had a dream about Zoe.”

Jared frowned. “Oh. What about?”

“I told her about us.” Evan said. “She freaked out. Completely lashed out at me, and it was… scary. She was yelling, and-and pulling at her hair, and she looked just-- mortified. She was so pissed off at me for being with you.”

“It was just a dream, Ev.” Jared reminded. “I’m sure that she’ll take it alright.”

“Alright? Just alright?” Evan questioned. “What if she freaks out? What if she gets her brother on me or-or something… her brother, like, threw a printer at Mrs. G-- he could easily, like, completely break me. And it’s not like I could defend myself with a broken arm. He’d just make the already broken arm worse.” He looked to his blank cast, which Jared had yet to sign. Well… which anyone had yet to sign. Not even his mother.  
  
“Hey, Ev, take a breath, okay?” Jared gently traced shapes into Evan’s chest as he looked up at him. “If things go south, I’ll be there. If Connor happens to come up, or something, I’ll step in front of you, okay?”   


“No. No, I don’t want you to be hurt, Jared.”

“It’s not even going to happen.”

“But what if it d--”  
  
“Evan.” Jared paused the motion of his hand. Instead, he placed his hand flat on his chest. “It won’t happen. I don’t think you know Zoe, like, at all. I mean, neither do I but I know that she’s not the kind of person to send her brother out to attack someone. She’s too sweet for that, Ev. The most she’ll do is whine to her parents, or something.”

“Don’t be rude.” Evan warned.

“Sorry.” Jared apologized. “But I’m sure that things will be fine. And if they’re not, then you can, like… punch me or something.”

“I don’t want to punch you.”

“Well, you won’t have to. Nothing bad is going to happen, Evy. I promise.”

Evan’s heart fluttered a small bit at the nickname. “Evy?”

“Trying it out. Do you like it?” Jared asked.

“Yeah. I do.” Evan thought for a moment, before smiling. “Jarebear?”

Jared smiled back to him. “Cute.”

Evan’s smile dropped when he thought about Zoe again. “I’m nervous about what I’m going to say to her. It’s just… terrifying. Like, I’m already anxious about talking to her, like… period. Even if it’s just friendly conversation. I mean, she’s popular, and has everything that someone could possibly want.”

“Ev. You just have to try and be confident. But you have to tell her.”

“I know.”

“I don’t want this relationship to be kept a secret.”

“You don’t?” Evan asked.

Jared’s face went red. “I mean,” He started. “It’s going to get out there eventually. I just-- I guess I want to be seen in public with you, and not feel like I have to play off, like… holding your hand as “just guiding you somewhere”. I want people to know that you’re my boyfriend, and my soulmate. I don’t want people to just think we’re in some weird sort of friends with benefits thing.”

“Doesn’t that mean sex?” Evan asked.  
  
“I think. Okay, non-sexual friends with benefits. Just hand-holding, and cuddling, and shit.” Jared said.

“Then,” Evan took in a breath. “I’ll tell Zoe when we go back to school, okay?” 

“Okay.” Jared leaned up, and pecked Evan’s lips. “Sounds good.”

Evan smiled softly. “Good.”


	19. Chapter 19

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> evan talks about his dad, and his mothers relationship with him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> mentions of abuse in this chapter oop i just,,, really like making fiction character's lives hell

“I wonder what my dad would think about this.” Evan stated. He was still laying with Jared. “If I texted him, he’d probably just ignore me. He’s got better things to do that to text me back. Sometimes I forget that I have step-siblings that I will never meet just because my dad’s a sleazebag.”

Jared sighed. “I’m just going to say this now,” He started. “I hate your dad. Fuck Mark.”

“You only know the minor details.” Evan said.  
  
Jared propped his chin up on Evan’s chest, and raised an eyebrow. “Spill.”

“Don’t tell my mom I told you all of this, okay? I’m info-dumping a lot of stuff onto you, and a lot of it my mom doesn’t like to tell people.” Evan explained. “So please just… do me and my mom a favour and keep this a secret?”

“Of course.” Jared nodded.

“You know the main story. That my dad left when I was five, and took everything from me and my mom. They got a divorce, and my dad met his new wife in Chicago. They got married a year after they started dating, and ended up having a boy and a girl.” There was a lot that had happened behind the scenes. Jared deserved to know. If someday Jared was going to be Heidi’s son-in-law, he needed to know this stuff. 

“Yeah, that’s the main story. I know that much.” Jared said. “So… what’s the hidden picture?”

“My dad was a dick to my mom. She deserved so much better than him. They weren’t even soulmates, you know.” Evan said. “They went on a vacation to Aruba. My mom claims that it was some magical night, and I was… well, uh--” He cleared his throat. “Conceived there, so. My dad only proposed to my mom because she was pregnant. She always said that she wanted to have kids after she was married, so, my dad thought that fulfilling that would make him, like… the best person ever. They didn’t even wait a year before they eloped. There was nobody there besides them, one of my dad’s friends, and one of my mom’s friends. They got married, and a few months after, I was born.”

“Doesn’t seem so bad so far.”   
  
“Well, after I was born, things get interesting. My dad was lazy when it came to helping with me. My mom was in charge of everything. She bought my crib, and everything else that was needed. My dad sat on his ass, and did nothing. My mom did absolutely everything. And when she’d ask my dad for help, he would call her shit like “ungrateful”, and a bitch.” Evan went on. “My dad cheated on my mom multiple times during their marriage. Remember that friend that I mentioned went with my mom when her and my dad eloped? Yeah, he slept with her. A few weeks after him and mom got married.”

“Okay, I take back what I said. Jesus Christ.” Jared shook his head. “Dick.”  
  
“My dad found the smallest things to harass my mom over.” Evan continued. “One of the worst memories I have is with my dad. It’s one of the earliest things I remember, because it impacted me so much. My mom was making dinner, and I can’t exactly remember what happened but… my dad had come home drunk, so of course, my mom questioned him on it. He started to yell, and ended up hitting her. Apparently it wasn’t the first time he’d hit her, either. But it was the first time that I’d seen it happen. I was sitting in my high-chair, at the table. I was scared of my dad for a while after that.”

“Jesus, Ev. I’m so sorry.” Jared was being genuine. You could tell. It was clear in his eyes. His eyes spoke a million words. “I can only imagine what it was like. My parents would argue sometimes, but… never did I ever see them get physical…”  
  
“It was terrible. Fast forward a few years, and they finally file for a divorce. I was upset because I didn’t quite understand that my dad was a terrible person. He was abusive, but I didn’t see that. I was a kid. I was too innocent to really realize the bigger picture.” Evan sighed. “The fondest memory I have was when my dad brought home the U-Haul truck to pack up his things. My mom and him let me sit behind the wheel. And that might be one of the only good memories I have with my dad.”

Jared tried to imagine a little five-year-old Evan sitting behind the wheel of a U-Haul. It came to him fairly easily. “You really don’t remember any other good memories?”

“I don’t think there were any true highlights.” Evan admitted. 

“I’m sorry.”  
  
“Next thing you know, he’s in Chicago with some cocktail waitress.” Evan frowned. “He calls me on holidays, and my birthday. He sent my mom a hundred dollars last month, which was weird, but… whatever. He claimed it was child support.”

“A hundred bucks for child support? Yeah right. Try a thousand.”  
  
“He never pays it. He doesn’t help with anything. Not my therapy, or meds, or dentist appointments… nothing. He just lets my mom handle it.”

“That’s fucking ridiculous.” Jared said. “I can’t stand that.”

“Neither can my mom. Or me, for that matter.” Evan said. “Hah, my dad also made my mom name me Mark. After him. Claimed that he wanted it to run in the family as some sort of generational thing. Mom’s looking into getting my name changed legally to Evan. So, thank god for that.”

“Yeah, Mark does not suit you. I cannot imagine calling you Marky.” Jared joked.   
  
“And please never do.” Evan said. He was serious, though. “I hate that name. It just reminds me that I have a shitbag for a father.”

“Well, babe,” The pet name was new. “I will never call you that. You’re just Evan to me, anyway. I wouldn’t have known that your name was different, if you hadn’t told me. It was, like, the first grade and I thought you were lying.”

“Yeah, and then you saw my birth certificate.” Evan reminded.

“Hah, yeah.”

The two went quiet afterward. Evan let out a breath, and kissed Jared’s head, looking up at the ceiling.

“I’m going to change the topic entirely,” Jared said, suddenly. “I still need to sign your cast.”

“You want to sign my cast?” Evan asked.

“Uh, yeah.” Jared chuckled. “I’m your boyfriend. And it’s shitty to keep looking at your blank fucking cast.”

Evan moved away from Jared, and sat up. He reached into his bedside drawer, and pulled out a Sharpie, handing it to Jared. He smiled, and sat up, moving closer to Evan. He went to writing. After a few moments, he was finished. He capped the pen, and looked to Evan.

Evan half expected Jared to have just drawn a dick, but instead, there was a message. It read:

 

‘ _ You mean everything to me. Thank you for being you. _

_ Jared <3 _ ’

 

Evan’s heart swelled in his chest, and he looked to Jared with tears in his eyes. “I never thought that you’d ever be this cheesy.”

“Well,” Jared laughed. “What can I say? I love cheese.”

Evan laughed, and leaned forward, pressing a soft kiss to Jared’s lips. Jared smiled into the kiss, and closed his eyes, immediately giving in. He was falling in love. That much was certain.


	20. Chapter 20

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> heidi comes home with the majority of the rest of jared's things.  
> they bring it all inside, and sit down to watch mamma mia.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> yes i am chapter dumping dont worry about it  
> heidi is mother of the year : )

“Boys! I’m home!” Heidi called from downstairs. She sounded fairly winded. Heidi had stopped by the Kleinman’s, and picked up what she could fit into her car. She got what Jared asked for, as well as a few extra things that she figured would be important. One of those things, being a now empty cork board.

Jared and Evan left the room to go greet Heidi. Jared had forgotten that she was going to grab his things. Not everything was inside yet, but seeing his laptop, and the cork board made everything suddenly a whole lot more real. He frowned, and walked over to Heidi, taking the things from her. “Thanks again, Miss-- er, Heidi.”

“There was a lot of stuff out there, kiddo. I couldn’t get all of it, but… I got what looked important.” Heidi explained. She let out a soft huffed. “There’s a lot in my trunk. Could I get some help unloading it? We can store it in the spare room upstairs.”

Jared nodded. “Yeah.” He put down his laptop, and the cork board, and looked back to Evan. “You coming?”

Evan nodded. “Yeah.”

Heidi looked to Evan’s cast, and smiled. “You got a signature?”

“Yeah, Jared signed it.” Evan replied. He walked over to his mom, and showed her the message. It still warmed Evan’s heart to look at. Heidi smiled.

“That’s sweet, Jared. You two are great.” She loved seeing Evan and Jared together. They just fit so perfectly. They were two peas in a pod. “C’mon, the faster we unpack this stuff… the faster we can maybe settle down and watch a movie?”

Jared actually liked the sound of a movie. “Sounds good.” Jared and Evan walked to the front, and got their shoes on. Then, they followed Heidi out to the car. It was like Jared had seen a bomb go off, and that bomb was his room. Practically everything important to him was there. His collection of old video games, his N64 that he got from his uncle for his bar mitzvah, his other consoles, and the rest of his clothes. 

Heidi sighed. “Like I said, I couldn’t get everything. But I knew how much you liked your video games, so, I tried to get all that I could, uh… video game wise. There’s also a shoebox labeled “memories”, so maybe that’s something you and Evan could go through? If there’s things you don’t want to remember, we can have a little fire in the backyard.”  
  
“Thanks, mom--” Jared froze. He bit his lip, and pushed up his glasses. “I mean Heidi.”

“Mom is fine.” Heidi replied, smiling gently to Jared.

Evan even smiled a bit at that. Jared had told him that Heidi was like a second mom to him, so it wasn’t weird to hear him call her mom. It was normal. She was his mom now. Evan grabbed a few things to carry inside, as did Heidi and Jared. After about 10 minutes, the trunk was empty, and everything was upstairs in the spare room. They would sort everything out when the time came.

For now, they were back downstairs. Evan and Jared let Heidi choose the movie. Not much to their surprise, she picked Mamma Mia, which was her all-time favourite. Jared cuddled up to Evan, and listened as Heidi sang along to quite literally every song. It definitely brought Jared’s mood up. This was a happy moment.

The movie was coming to and end. Both Evan, and Jared were both asleep by the time the credits started to roll. Heidi smiled over to the two, and got up. She grabbed the blanket that laid on the couch, and laid it over top of the two boys. She gently kissed each other foreheads, before going upstairs to get some sleep herself. She felt like she would be able to tonight. Everything seemed to be okay. And that was enough.


	21. Chapter 21

Jared had slept soundly on the couch with Evan. Not a single nightmare invaded his mind. He was extremely thankful for that. Evan, had slept without an invasive thought, too. The both of them combined had slept well. Heidi had, too. She had woken up fairly early, made herself a coffee, and left the boys a note on the kitchen counter telling them to make themselves breakfast, and that they didn’t have to go into school again today. She would let them stay home for the rest of the week.

It was around 10:30 when Jared woke up. He yawned, and opened his eyes, looking to the boy that was cuddled up into his side. He smiled softly, and kissed the top of his head. Waking up next to him was a thing that Jared would get used to very quickly. 

He was surprised at how well he slept. Having been sitting on an angle, on the couch, with Evan cuddled up close to his side. It was a position that Jared never thought he would ever find comfort in, but… here he was.   
  
Evan woke up not long after Jared. He sat up, and stretched out, looking over to the other boy. “We fell asleep down here?”

Jared hummed. “Seems so.” He said. “Don’t think your mom wanted to wake us up.” He gestured to the blanket wrapped around them, smiling.   
  
“Yeah,” Evan yawned. “She does that. There’d be nights where I’d fall asleep on the couch, and I’d wake up with a pillow under my head, and covered in a blanket. My mom’s great.”

“She really is.” Jared agreed. He moved the blanket off of him, and stood up, stretching out his arms. He glanced over into in the kitchen, spotting the note that Heidi had left for them. He walked over, and picked it up, letting out a soft breath of relief. “We don’t have to go to school.”

“Good.” Evan said. “Don’t feel like stressing out about that right now.”

“Me neither.” Jared replied, returning to Evan. He sat down.“Mom also says to make something to eat. She’ll be home by her usual time.”

“Last night was the first time that my mom and I ever did something together in, like… a long time.” Evan admitted. “She’s been so busy.”

“I can imagine so.” Jared said. “Last night was good. I thought that I would have stressed about everything a whole lot more, but… it was a valid amount of stress.”

Evan rested his head on Jared’s shoulder. “You know that you’re allowed to be upset, right?”

“I know. And I am upset, but,” Jared shrugged with one shoulder, so he wouldn’t disrupt Evan’s resting. “I don’t know. I’m not going to go around sobbing about it anymore. It’s been two days.”

Evan sighed softly. “Jare,” He started. “Just please promise me that if something’s bothering you, you’ll talk to me.”  
  
“I promise.” Jared was used to bottling up emotions, and hiding them. Even if something was wrong, Evan wouldn’t know anyway. “I wouldn’t keep anything from you.”  
  
“Good.” Evan said. 

The two sat in a non-awkward silence for a while after that. The silence was nice sometimes. They didn’t need words. It was a relief to not have to say anything for a little. Most times, Jared hated silence, but it was different when you had a boyfriend whose head was currently resting against your shoulder. 

A boyfriend. A  _ soulmate _ . Jared’s heart fluttered.

“You know, Ev,” Jared turned his head to look at him. “You make this whole situation a lot less stressful.”

“I do?” Evan questioned. He looked up to Jared.   
  
“Yeah. There’s something about going through a situation like this with your boyfriend that makes it all kind of… okay.” Jared smiled softly.  
  
Evan couldn’t help but smile back. “I’m glad that I can do that for you, Jare.”

Jared reached a hand up to hold his cheek. “I’m pretty fucking glad, too.”


	22. Chapter 22

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> the doorbell rings, and both evan and jared are shocked by the person at the school.  
> jared talks to them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this is kind of a long chapter,, and it goes on.... for a while... i apologize in advance im trying to condense chapters as much as i can bc ,, im currently at 30 something on google docs drafts hgnggng

The two had traveled back up to Evan’s room. It was a lot more comfortable, and they could cuddle with a bit more ease. Things were seemingly okay. Jared was thankful for that. Even after the whole shitshow that went down, they managed to keep an “okay” atmosphere. In Jared’s head, the slurs, and yelling still swarmed his brain. He ignored them, though, disobeying Evan’s one rule; to tell him what was bothering him. 

In Evan’s head, thoughts about what he was going to tell Zoe, as well as Jared’s mother and his boyfriend’s situation stayed put. They wouldn’t be gone for a long while. There was no erasing them. Evan was scared for his boyfriend’s sake. 

The two didn’t have much time to at least try to relax. It was 4:07 in the evening, and someone had rang the doorbell. Evan jumped at the suddenness of the sound, and let out a sharp exhale. He never answered the door when he was home alone. It scared him. Anyone could be there. He was never the best with the whole “talking to people thing”. So, Evan stayed still.

“Are you just going to ignore it?” Jared asked.

“Answering the door makes me… anxious.” Evan admitted. “It’s probably just, uh… Girl Scouts, or something.”

“I’m going to go see who it is.” Jared said. “It might be your mom. Maybe she’s locked out, or something. Or carrying something. Or, she ordered us a pizza… that seems like a Heidi thing to do.” 

Evan nodded. “Thank you.” He kissed Jared’s lips quickly before he sat up. 

“Of course.” Jared smiled softly down to him, and adjusted himself, before walking out of Evan’s room. He walked downstairs, and to the front door, looking through the peephole to see who was at the door. It was a female figure, but it wasn’t Heidi. Jared’s brows furrowed, and he opened the door. 

Zoe Murphy turned around as Jared opened the door. He felt his heart stop. “Zoe?” He asked, acting confused.

Zoe should have been the one who was confused. “Jared? Uh… this is Evan’s place, right?”

“Yeah.” Jared nodded.

“What are you doing here?” Zoe asked.

“Could ask you the same question.” Jared replied nonchalantly. He leaned against the door frame. “What’s up?”

“Where’s Evan been? He hasn’t been answering my texts, or anything, and I haven’t seen him-- or you, now that I’m thinking about it. What’s going on? Is everything okay?” Zoe asked.

“Everything’s peachy. Uh, I’m just visiting. Actually, Evan is pretty sick right now. I was just, uh, upstairs kind of chilling with him, you know?” Jared lied. 

“Oh. Can I see him?”

Jared was not expecting that. “Uh…”

“If it’s like… hella contagious, then it’s cool, I can come back. I’ve just been worried about it. We only just figured out we were soulmates, and suddenly he’s disappeared? And you, too… where have you been?” Zoe asked.

“With Evan.” That much was true. “His mom works weird shifts. My mom got me the week off of school, and I’m taking care of Ev while his mom’s at work.”

That seemed weird to Zoe. Her brows furrowed. “Okay, what’s really going on, Jared?”

“Excuse me for a moment.” Jared said. He offered Zoe a nervous smile, before closing the door. He ran upstairs, and into Evan’s room, looking to him with fear in her eyes. 

Evan looked over to Jared when he entered, a look of both confusion, and worry on his face. He sat up. “Jared?”

“Zoe’s outside.”

Evan’s eyes widened. The confusion was replaced with fear. “What?”

“She’s asking about you. About me. About what I’m doing here.”   


“Shit. Shit, shit, shit…” Evan got up, and out of bed. He walked over to Jared, and held his shoulders. “What do I do, Jared? What do I say? I-I don’t know what to do.”  
  
“Ev, babe,” Jared reached up and held his face. “Take a breath, okay? Calm down. It’ll be okay. I’ll stay with you, okay? But you need to take this opportunity to its full advantage, okay? Breathe.”  
  
Evan did his best to steady his breathing. He was terrified. He figured that Zoe would lash out.

“Evan. I promise it’ll be okay.” Jared reassured. “Let’s just go and get this over with, okay?”

“Okay.” Evan complied.

The two walked downstairs. Jared opened the door. Zoe looked to him with complete confusion on her face. “Okay, seriously, what the fuck is going on--” She saw Evan, and smiled softly. “Evan. Evan, I’ve been worried about you. Where have you been?”

Evan took a few steps forward. Jared moved out of his way, and watched as Zoe hugged onto him. Evan was tense. He wrapped one arm around Zoe, but didn’t hold onto her completely. Zoe pulled back, and looked to him with complete worry now. “We need to talk, Zoe.”

“Yeah, we do.” Zoe confirmed. “About where you’ve been for the past few days. I’ve texted you, and you haven’t texted back.”

“I haven’t been checking my phone.” Evan said. That was true, the boy hadn’t checked his phone since Jared arrived. “And I’ve been home. Sick, actually. I’m feeling a bit better today, but my mom wants me to stay home for the rest of the week.”

“You don’t look sick.” Zoe said.  
  
Evan nodded. “I know. I said I was feeling better.”

“Jared said that he’d been, like… taking care of you for the past little while.” Zoe looked past Evan to Jared, who was forcing a smile. He was clearly nervous. “Evan, what’s going on? This whole thing seems sketchy…”

Evan swallowed. “I…”

“Sure, if you tell me what’s going on…” Zoe looked to Evan’s cast. She cocked her head, and looked up to Evan and Jared. “Why is Jared’s name signed with a heart?”

Jared’s eyes widened. “What?”

“The signature-- I… Okay. Seriously  _ what’s _ going on? This is the last time I’m going to ask. Evan?” Zoe looked mad now. Shit. 

“I don’t think that we’re a match, Zoe.” Evan said, quickly.

Zoe let out a huff of a laugh. “How couldn’t we be?”

“Because Jared and I are.” 

Zoe’s expression changed completely. She was disgusted, or anything… but mad. “So you’ve been cheating on me?” She asked.

“Wh-- I… no! No. I mean, yes-- I mean… no. I mean--”  
  
Zoe stuffed her hands into the pockets of her cardigan. “So the heart by Jared’s name does mean something. Jesus Christ… I-I can’t believe this, Evan! You let this go on. It’s been three days, and in those three days, you’ve been… you’ve been with Jared!”

“Zoe, listen, I can--” Zoe interrupted Evan.

“What? _Explain_? Explain why you couldn’t fucking call me, or meet up with me sooner and tell me that you’re dating Jared?” Zoe was tearing up now. She sniffled, and shook her head. “Jesus Christ, it’s like I can’t trust anyone. See you, Evan.” She turned on her heel, and stormed away.

Evan watched with complete pain in his eyes. He covered his mouth, and sniffled, backing away from the door. “I-I did it--”

Jared watched Zoe move to get into her Kia. “I’m going to go and talk to her. Just, breathe, okay? I’m going to fix this. Just give me a moment, okay?”

Evan shook his head. “Jare-- Jared, you shouldn’t--”  
  
“Ev.” Jared looked to him. He wanted to fix this. He wanted Zoe to know the bigger picture. “I’m going  to do this, okay?”

Evan wiped his eyes. He wanted to disagree, but couldn’t. Jared was just trying to do something good for him. “Okay…”

Jared smiled faintly. He kissed his forehead, and rushed out to Zoe, meeting her before she got into her car. She glared at him. “What, Jared?”

“Can we talk about this. Please?” Jared asked.

“What is there to talk about, Jared?” Zoe questioned. She crossed her arms across her chest.

“You should know the whole story, okay? Before you jump to any conclusions?”  
  
“Fine. You’ve got two minutes.” Zoe said.

“Can we maybe talk in private?” Jared asked. 

“Get in the damn car.”

Jared walked to the passenger seat of Zoe’s car, and got in. He wanted until she was in before starting. “Okay, so… Evan came into class on Wednesday, and he was visibly.upset. We ended up leaving the class, and he told me that he didn’t think that you and him were soulmates. He told me that… he didn’t feel, or see anything when you two touched, which you’re supposed to. He figured that maybe you didn’t get a good look at the birthmark, or something.”

Zoe brushed a strand of hair out of her face. “Just so you know, you’ve got an minute and thirty seconds.”

“Evan and I went to my car to calm down. We ended up touching, and saw this-this flash of light. We checked, and we were a match. Flash forward a few hours, and we’re in my room. My mom comes home, and she’s mad. She comes upstairs, and I end up telling her I found my soulmates. I lie at first, but then I tell her the truth. She freaks out…” Jared let out a soft sigh. He didn’t realize how much he’d hate talking about this. “She kicked me out. She was yelling, at both myself, and Evan. I’ve been staying with Evan since then.”

Zoe was not longer counting down. “Jesus Christ, Jared… I’m so sorry.”   
  
“Evan hasn’t been at school because of me. If it weren’t for me, we wouldn’t be in this mess. I told him that he needed to tell you, but then we got caught up in this mess, and… we haven’t even checked our phones since the whole, uh… thing.” Jared explained.

Zoe ran a hand through her hair, and shook her head. Her heart ached for Jared, and for Evan. “Jared, I-- I don’t know what to say. I’m so fucking sorry. And god, don’t I feel like the bad guy… here I was lashing out at Evan. Christ, Jared…”

“He’ll forgive you.” Jared said. “I’m sorry that we didn’t tell you sooner.”

“No. No, you don’t have to apologize, Jared. You’re going through a lot right now, and I’m so, so sorry. And please tell Evan that I’m sorry. I’ll apologize to him in person, too, I just… Jesus…” Zoe looked to Jared. 

“I’ll tell him. You can’t tell anyone I told you this, okay?” Jared practically begged. “Nobody at that school knows that I’m gay. And I definitely don’t need people knowing that I got kicked out.”

“Your secret is safe with me, Jared.”

“Thank you.”  
  
“I’m sorry for freaking out. It wasn’t right of me.”

“You didn’t know.” Jared reminded. “I’ll let you go. I’ve gotta go check on Ev.”

“Okay.” She hesitated for a moment, before leaning over the centre console, and hugging Jared. “If you ever need anything, Jared, I’m here.”

Jared smiled faintly. He hugged her back, and patted her back. “Thank you, Zoe. It means a lot.”

Zoe pulled away, and smiled softly to Jared. “Good luck, okay? Stay safe.”

“I will.” Jared moved to get out of Zoe’s car. “See you, Zoe.”  
  
“Yeah, see you.” Zoe waved. Jared closed the door, and let out a breath. He walked back up the sidewalk to the front door to Evan’s. 


	23. Chapter 23

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> evan confesses to jared

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> just a sweet lil' filler chapter b4 everything goes downhill..... again.

Jared re-entered the house with a sigh. Evan was standing in the same place that’d he’d previously been in. His arms were crossed over his chest, and he was shaking, and taking in deep breaths. He looked over to Jared when he entered. 

“Hey, it’s okay.” Jared reassured. He walked over to his soulmate, and held his shoulders. “I talked to her. She’s not mad. She understands completely, Ev.” 

Evan let out a breath of relief, and unwrapped his arms. He pulled Jared into a tight hug, holding him as close as possible. “So you told her..?”

“I told her everything. She forgives you, and myself. She told me that she’d apologize to you in person, but I’m sure that she just wanted to give you a little while to think and process everything. To take a few breaths.” Jared said. 

Evan nodded into Jared’s shoulder. He took in a breath, and let it out. “Thank you for handling that…”

“Of course, Ev. I couldn’t just leave you hanging like that.” He sighed. “Maybe I should have waited to sign you cast. I’m sorry, Ev.”

Evan shook his head. “No. No, it’s… it’s good that she found out that way. I wouldn’t have known what to say otherwise.” 

Jared moved back from the hug, and looked to him. “I’m proud of you for telling the truth.”  
  
“I almost lied.” Evan said. “She just… she looked so upset, and-and mad-- I-I didn’t know what to do. But, then I thought about you, and I guess I just… let it out.”

Jared raised a hand to hold Evan’s cheek. “You did great.”

Evan smiled faintly. He went quiet for a moment, before looking Jared in the eyes. “I love you, Jared.”

Jared froze up a small bit. He never really imagined hearing Evan say that to him. He smiled softly, and leaned up, pressing a kiss to Evan’s lips. Evan kissed him back, holding his shoulders. The kiss didn’t last long, as Jared wanted to say something in return. “I love you, too, Ev.”

“We’re not moving too fast, are we?” Evan questioned. 

Jared shook his head. “I don’t think so. We’re soulmates. It’s different.”

“Okay. Good.” Evan smiled a bit more. “Because I’ve been holding that in for quite a while.”

“Ev, we’ve only been dating for three days.” Jared chuckled softly.

“I know, but…” Evan shrugged. “I felt this, like… shock of love the day that we started dating. I think it’s a soulmate thing. To be in love immediately?”

“Probably. The universe is fucking weird for having soulmates.” Jared said.

“Yeah.” Evan agreed. He wondered who invented soulmates. Had they always been around? Did Adam and Eve have matching birthmarks? He wasn’t at all religious, but, if religion was legit… why isn't there anything about birthmarks in the Bible? Maybe it wasn’t important. 

“Let’s go back upstairs. Our cuddling session was interrupted.”


	24. Chapter 24

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> the stress of everything has made evan sick. jared has to go back to school.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> after this chapter literally everything goes downhill again im so Sorry

A few days had passed. Things had been getting better, or so Jared thought. The stress had been getting to Evan, resulting in him getting sick. He was coughing, and sniffling, and he looked tired. It was Monday, which meant that Jared would have to go to school. Heidi only got the week off for them. Waking up in the morning was dreadful. He didn’t want to have to leave Evan here alone, but he’d told him that he’d be okay. He’d just rest, and watch Netflix.

Though, when the morning came, it was a different story. “You could just skip.” Evan said.

“I can’t skip, Ev. I need to get your homework, and my own. We missed a week, babe.” Jared had gotten a bit more used to the pet names. “I wish that I could stay. I really wish that I could, but… I can’t.” He kissed Evan’s forehead, and got out of bed. He stretched his arms over his head, and walked over to the dresser. He’d finally unpacked. Evan had let him keep all of his shirts in the closet alongside his own, and all of his pants and whatnot in the dresser.

Evan sat up, and sniffled. “I just want to lay in bed all day with you.”

“I do too.” Jared sighed softly. He took out a pair of jeans, and walked over to the closet, grabbing a hoodie (it belonged to Evan). “But, you can text me all day. Pretend that I’m there. Spray my cologne on a pillow and cuddle with it or something.”

“That’s a good idea.” Evan said. “I’m going to do that.”

“Cute.” Jared looked back at him. He walked back to the dresser. He sprayed on some cologne, and lathered on a bit of deodorant. Then, he put on the hoodie over the shirt he’d slept in. “I’m stealing your hoodie for the day. Hope you don’t mind.”

“Not at all. You look better in it than I do.” Evan complimented. He loved the way that his hoodies fit on Jared. The boy was shorter than him, which made the hoodie a bit too long for him, resulting in ‘sweater-paws’, as Evan liked to call them. 

“You’re sweet, Ev.” Jared didn’t mind changing in front of Evan. He took off his pajama pants, and pulled on the pair of jeans. Evan didn’t look, despite knowing that he could. After he was done getting dressed, he walked over to Evan’s side of the bed, and leaned down to his level. “Promise me that if need something you’ll text me?”

“I will.” Evan replied.

“You want me to pick you up something today? Oh, or… I could come home for lunch? Pick up McDonalds or something, and come back here and eat with you?” Jared questioned.

Evan smiled brightly at that idea. “I’d love that. You don’t need to get anything, though.”

“No, I know… but I want to.” He kissed Evan’s forehead again. Evan hadn’t let him kiss his lips since he got sick. Jared obeyed. “I’m going to finish getting ready.”

“Sounds good. Come say goodbye to me before you go, okay?”

“Uh, duh. Of course I will.” Jared smiled to him, before turning to leave the room. He walked a short way down the hall to the bathroom. He looked in the mirror, and let out a soft breath. This was going to be a good day. Everything was going to be okay, and he had things to look forward to when he got home. Evan. Jared combed his fingers through his hair, and brushed his teeth. He walked out of the bathroom after all was said and done. 

Evan awaited Jared’s return. The boy wasn’t even at school yet, and Evan missed him. It was going to be a long day, but Evan knew he’d waste most of it away by sleeping. He hoped that this was a good day for Jared, though. He was sure that it would be. Evan looked over as Jared re-entered the room.

“I’ve gotta go, babe. I’m already running late.” Jared grabbed his school bag from beside Evan’s bed. He threw it around his shoulders, and walked over to the bedside table, grabbing his phone.   
  
“This sucks.” Evan said. “Don’t go.”

“I’m sorry, babe.” Jared walked over to Evan’s side again, and kissed his forehead once more. “I love you.”

Evan sighed softly. “I love you, too.”

“I’ll be home for lunch, okay? Just sleep while I’m gone. It’ll go by fast.”

“Okay. I’ll try.” He would sleep, though.  
  
“Good. Okay,” He stood up straight. “Wish me luck.”

“Good luck, babe. I love you!” Evan waved to him, smiling.

Jared had started to walk away. He turned around, and waved back. “Have a good day. Don’t have too much fun without me.” He winked.

“I’ll try not to. No promises, though.” Evan chuckled softly.

“Good enough. See you at lunch.” With that, Jared left the room. Evan sighed softly, and laid his head back against the pillow, looking up at the ceiling. He yawned, and closed his eyes. Before Evan knew it, he was fast asleep again.


	25. Chapter 25

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> jared's back to school definitely isn't good.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i believe the f slur is mentioned in this chapter im S o sorry its begun again.........  
> also yea h made up names ahead heehee

Jared had blasted his music on the way to school as a way to drown out any negative thoughts he had. There were quite a few. He’d told Zoe extremely confidential information, and he really hoped that it remained exactly that… confidential. Jared parked his car, and turned down the stereo. He took his keys out of the ignition, and grabbed his bag before getting out of the car.

As soon as Jared started his walk into the school, everything felt off. In the courtyard, the usually smokers who hung around there starred as he entered the building. Jared ignored it as best as he could. It was just the smokers, it was normal for them to stare. They were kind of dicks. Jared put his hands into the pockets of the hoodie he’d borrowed from Evan, and kept his head down. 

What Jared couldn’t avoid with his head down, was the whispers. Some people laughed, too. People talked amongst themselves… about him. Jared swallowed roughly, and shook his head. Maybe he was imagining things. Though, when someone shoved their body into him, and mumbled the word ‘faggot’, he knew that it wasn’t his imagination. People really were talking about him. How did they know? How the fuck did they know?

There was only one logical person to blame. Zoe. Zoe was the only teenager at this school who had the information in the first place. She probably told her friends, and then her friends told other mutuals, and those mutuals told everyone else. 

Alana Beck was standing at Jared’s locker. She looked up to him as he approached, and offered a forced smile. “Jared. Hi.”

“You’ve never spoken to me before.” Jared said. He only knew Alana from her attempts at running for student council president, and because he followed her Twitter account. “What do you want?”

“I heard about what happened, and I just wanted to say that I’m so, so sorry.” Alana frowned, and gripped at the straps to her backpack. “And that if you ever need anything, I’m here for you.”

“Who told you about this?” Jared questioned. 

“I heard from… well, multiple people today. Adam Scrivello, Raymond Hawes… oh, and Hudson Renshaw.” Alana explained. “I don’t know how this all started, though.”

Of course all of the jocks had been talking about him. Football players. Hudson Renshaw was the quarterback for their school’s football team. Buff, and tall. He could easily take Jared in a fight. “Well, that’s fantastic.” Jared said, clearly being sarcastic.  
  
“I’d watch your back, Jared. People have been saying some intense stuff, and I don’t want to see you get hurt.” Alana said.

“Right. Will do.” Jared opened his locker, ignoring Alana from here on out. Alana pushed up her glasses, and adjusted her grip on the straps.

“Well, uh… be safe, Jared. I’ll see you around.” She walked away. She probably didn’t want to be seen talking to the ‘pansy of the school’. 

Jared grabbed his textbooks, and closed his locker. He needed to find Zoe. He needed to confront her about this. Jared locked his lock, and gripped his textbooks tightly. He wandered the halls, spotting Zoe, along with some of her friends, in the common-area of the school. It was like an indoor courtyard. Plastic trees, and circular tables. A large window brought light into the area, showing off their school’s mascot painted onto the linoleum.

Zoe looked up as Jared approached. She’d heard everything, but hadn’t started it. She wasn’t sure who did, but whoever it was deserved to burn in hell. 

“What the fuck, Zoe?” Jared asked, clearly furious. He stopped in front of her, watching as her friends turned to face the kid who was once a nobody, and was suddenly one of the most popular kids at their school. “I thought I told you not to tell anyone.”

“What?” Zoe questioned. “Jared, this isn’t my fault.”

“Then whose is it, Zoe? You’re the only fucking person at this school who knew about what everyone’s talking about. Suddenly one person, has grown to over five-hundred. How can you fucking explain that, Zoe? You’re the  _ only _ person who knew. I trusted you with that information.” Jared knuckles were turning white from how tight he was gripping his textbooks.

Zoe’s brows furrowed. “Listen, Jared. I don’t understand why you’re putting the blame on me. I told you that it wasn’t my fault. I have no clue who started this, Jared.”

“Stop lying. Stop fucking lying to me. It was you, Zoe. You told everyone--”

“Jared, I’m not a liar. Unlike you. I didn’t tell anyone, okay? But you could have fucking told me that you and Evan were sleeping together.”

“We’re not--” Jared shook his head frantically. “How does that have anything to do with this?”

“You’re calling me a liar, Jared. I know a liar when I see one. And  _ you’re _ one of them.” Zoe said. She was the one who was mad now. “You have no fucking right to come in here and start pointing fingers.”

Jared’s heart started to beat at a mile a minute. He dropped his books at Zoe’s feet, and ran off. He rushed down the hallway, maneuvering through people that stood in his way. He made it out to the courtyard. Thankfully, the smokers had moved to their more “secretive” location, which left Jared to be alone. Jared’s body shook, and his head raced with all of Zoe’s words. His mind raced with everyone’s words. How did they know? If it wasn’t Zoe, then who was it? 

Jared shakily took out his phone to text Evan. He could barely form a sentence. 

 

**Evan <3**

im cming h me

 

**Evan <3**

evyone knw s 

 

**Evan <3**

im so fuc k nign scared

 

He was about to type out another message, but his phone slipped out of his hands. “Fuck--” He leaned down, and went to pick it up. That’s when he heard the school’s doors open, and shut.   
  
“What do we have here?”


	26. Chapter 26

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> jared gets beat up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> andnndndn heres the STRONGEST tw heavy chapter. PLEASE read with caution. verbal, and physical abuse ahead ... pleasepleaseplease stay safe.

Hearing that voice did not settle Jared’s panic. It wasn’t a friendly voice. He grabbed his phone quickly, and gripped it tightly in his hand, looking to the boy who had spoken. Hudson Renshaw, followed by a fairly large group of his ‘minions’ as Jared liked to call them. 

“Aww, little faggot’s scared.” Hudson smirked. “Christ, by the way he was bending down, he was practically asking for the soap to be dropped.”

The boys who trailed behind him laughed. Jared, on the other hand, was frozen in fear. 

Hudson faked a pout. “What’s wrong, Jared?”

“Get-- get away from me, Hudson--” Jared finally spoke. “I-I don’t-- I don’t want any trouble, and I-I’m sure that you don’t, either.”

Hudson laughed. “Jared,” He shook his head. “By causing trouble, I’ll be doing this fucking school a favour. Such a pity that your mom only kicked you out. She should have finished the job. We don’t need any disgusting fucking fags like you running around the school.”

Jared went to put his phone in his pocket. He ended up dropping it again, but he could care less about that right now. He was too busy being absolutely fucking terrified of the boys who had crowded around him. “P-Please--”

“Please what, Jared?” Hudson asked. “Fuck you?”

“No-- No. No, no… no.” Jared was like a record stuck on repeat.

“Believe me, Kleinman. I’m too far out of your league anyway… unlike, say… Evan Hansen?” Hudson smirked. It was almost devilish.

“Leave Evan out of this!” Jared practically yelled.

“You’re such a fucking homewrecker, Jared. You ruined Zoe’s life. Now she has to live with the fact that the person who was supposed to be her soulmate, is actually a faggot, and is dating a pathetic, little nobody.” Hudson gestured for two of his ‘minions’, to go behind Jared. They obeyed, and walked behind Jared. One, leaned down and grabbed his phone. He chuckled.

“Texting your boyfriend, were you?” The boy asked. He tossed Jared’s phone to the side, and grabbed Jared by the arm. The other boy alongside him did the same. They held him back from throwing any punches.

Hudson walked up to him, and grabbed him by his hoodie’s collar. “Maybe I should do your mom a favour, hey?” He asked. “Finish the job? Maybe do Zoe a little favour in the process… beautiful girl like that shouldn’t have to deal with the fact that her ex-boyfriend is dating someone of… your stature.”

Jared squirmed to get out of the grip of the three boys, but failed. Hudson threw a punch, hitting Jared in the face. The boys let go of his arms, and let him fall to the ground. Hudson, as well as the two others, started to kick at Jared. He winced, and curled up, not knowing what to do. He was terrified. Completely, and utterly terrified. He didn’t scream, or cry, as much as it hurt, too afraid that him voicing his pain would only make the beating worse for him. 

Soon, Jared was being lifted off the ground, being held by the collar of Evan’s hoodie. “You’re so fucking pathetic, Jared. You should have done everyone a fucking favour and killed yourself.”

Blood trickled down Jared’s nose, and lip. His a frame had popped out of his glasses. He’d need to find that. His ribs, and legs ached. “M-Maybe I will--”

“That’s if we don’t kill you first.” One of the boys said.

Hudson chortled. “Exactly.”

One of the other boys handed Hudson a pocketknife. He gratefully took it, and held it up to Jared. His eyes were full of fear. Jesus Christ, they really were going to kill him. Holy shit. This is how he was going to die. He was going to die thanks to a fucking hate crime. That was pathetic. Hudson pressed the knife against Jared’s neck. The feeling of the blade made shivers run up Jared’s spine, and he closed his eyes tight. He half expected for Hudson to slit his throat, but the bell rang. 

Hudson wasn’t done though. He brought the knife up to Jared’s cheek, and cut across it. Jared winced at the feeling. It was a terrible, terrible feeling. Hudson pushed him to the ground, gave him a few more kicks to his side, before running off with his buddies before they were caught. 

Jared laid there for a few moments, before gradually forcing himself up. He let himself cry now. Everything hurt so bad, and he couldn’t help himself. He bit his lip hard, and pushed himself off the ground. He sat up, and looked around for his phone. One of his eyes was practically swollen shut, and the other one had no vision either, thanks to the fact that his lens was punched out of his glasses. Blood trickled down his cheek from the fairly large gash that was made via the pocketknife. It also fell from his nose. 

He felt around for his lens, thankful to find it. He took off his glasses, and popped it back into place. He didn’t care that it was dirty, or scratched, just that he could see properly enough to find his phone. He crawled over to the place where it had landed, only to be stopped by a pair of shoes, and legs.


	27. Chapter 27

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> zoe comes out to help jared.  
> she takes him home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hngnghgn please still be advised that the tw is still in play <3

 He looked up to see that it was Zoe.

“Jesus Christ, Jared.” Zoe looked beyond worried for the boy. “I’m so sorry-- holy shit.” She bent down, and picked up his phone, handing it to him. It had cracked. No big deal.

“Why do you care. I ruined your life, r-right?” Jared looked to her. Well, with one functional eye, anyway. “Shouldn’t you be fucking pleased that this happened?”

“You didn’t ruin my life, Jared.” Zoe said. “I overreacted. I shouldn’t have went off on you. It wasn’t right, and I’m so sorry. This could have been avoided. Hudson looked pretty fucking pleased with himself.”

Jared sniffled. The faint taste of blood traveled down his throat. “Not surprised. He should have killed me.” 

“No, he shouldn’t have.” Zoe shook her head. “Come on, Jared. Let’s get you to the infirmary…”

“No.” Jared refused. He didn’t want to go inside looking like this. “Just take me home.”

“Jared, you’re hurt. Badly.” 

“I don’t care, I just want to go home.”

“Home being Evan’s?”

“Yes.”

Zoe sighed. She really wanted Jared to get the care that he needed, but it was clear that he just wanted to go home. “I’ll call Evan.”

Zoe took out her phone, and opened up her contacts. She pressed on Evan’s contact, and then on the call button. It rang for a while.

Evan had been sleeping. He only woke up to the sound of his phone ringing. He reached for it, and answered the call seeing that it was Zoe. “Zoe?” He asked, voice tired.

“Evan. Jared’s hurt.” Zoe said. “Badly. Shit happened, and I’m bringing him home.”

“Wait, what?” Evan was more awake now. “What? What ‘shit’, Zoe?”

Zoe passed the phone to Jared. He took it. “Hey.”

“Jared? Jared, what the fuck happened?” Evan was freaking out.

“I got beat up.” Jared replied, nonchalantly.

“What?” 

“Hudson Renshaw. He beat me up.”

“Holy shit, Jared. Holy fucking shit. Jared, what happened? What the hell happened?”

Jared took his keys out of his pocket, and handed them to Zoe. He was lucky that he hadn’t landed on them. “I’ll explain when I get home.”

“Jared--” Evan took in a shaky breath. “Jared, please tell me that you’re okay?”

“I’m fine. Just a few scrapes, and bruises.” Jared lied. He wiped the blood from his nose away on the sleeve of Evan’s hoodie. It was black, but you could still see it. “I’ll be fine. I’ll explain everything more when I get home, okay?”

Evan let out the shaky breath he’d took in. “Okay. I love you, Jared. Please be safe.”

“I will. I love you, too.”

Jared hung up after that.  
  
Evan only then saw the texts that Jared had sent. His heart broke, and tears fought their way into Evan’s eyes. He texted his mother.

 

**Mom**   
Jared’s hurt. Bad. Something happened at school. Please come home.


	28. Chapter 28

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> zoe and jared talk as she drives him home

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> tw still applicable

Zoe had helped Jared to his car, and to get him in. He winced on the way in. It was clear that something was up with his ribs. He hoped that it would just go away with time. Zoe got into the driver’s seat, and started the car, wanting to get Jared to Evan’s as quick as possible.

“You know what’s funny,” Jared said, looking over to Zoe. “I told myself that today was going to be a good day. And now, here I am. Beat up to a fucking pulp. It’s pathetic, really.” He opened his storage compartment, and grabbed a box of tissues. He looked into the rearview, and wiped the blood off of his face. It was hard to get rid of completely, though. He wouldn’t be touching that gash until he knew if he needed stitches or not. The thing was, though, he didn’t want Jared to be worried. That was unavoidable, though.  
  
“It’s not pathetic.” Zoe replied. She kept her eyes on the road. “Hudson’s relentless. He’s probably the one who started this whole thing.”

“But how did he find out?” Jared asked. 

“Word gets around.” Zoe replied. “Sad, but true.”

“Alana Beck told me that he was told by three people today. Including Hudson.” Jared looked out the window with one half-closed eye, and the other perfectly fine. “It’s embarrassing.”

“I’m sorry, Jared.” Zoe sighed. “People are terrible.”

“Yeah.” Jared wished that weren’t true, but it was. “Thanks for driving me home.”

“Of course.” Zoe replied. “Hey, do you think that I could drive your car back to the school, though? I’ll drop it off tomorrow.”

Jared nodded. “Yeah. That's fine.”

“Okay. Thank you.” Zoe went quiet after that. She just listened as ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ by Queen  played quietly on Jared’s stereo. “This whole situation is fucked, Jared. And I just want you to know that I’m here for you. I know that we’re not the closest of friends… and for that matter, I don’t even know if we’re friends, but…”

“We’re friends, Zoe.” Jared said. “And thanks, it means a lot. I definitely don’t want to be alone through all of this.”

“You’ve got Evan.” Zoe reassured. 

Jared nodded. Evan did promise to him that he’d be with him, by his side, no matter what. He appreciated that. “I love him.”

“I know.” Zoe smiled faintly. “You two deserve each other. I can’t be bitter. I’m really happy for you two.”

“Can’t tell if that’s sarcasm or not.”

“It’s not.” Zoe replied.

“Okay. Well, thanks.”  
  
Zoe nodded. Soon, she pulled up in front of Evan’s house. Jared sighed as he looked to the familiar sidewalk, and front door. 

“Do you need help getting inside?” Zoe asked. Jared shook his head.

“No. I’m good.” He grabbed his backpack, and stuffed the bloody Kleenex into the side pocket. He opened the door to his car, and gradually got out, despite how painful it was. “Thanks again, Zoe. See you.”

“Yeah, see you, Jared.” Jared closed the door, and threw his backpack around his shoulders. He limped up the sidewalk, and entered the house with the key that Heidi had given him. He closed the door behind him, and took off his shoes. He slowly made his way upstairs to Evan’s room. “Ev, you in here?” He peeked inside, seeing Evan curled up on his bed, crying.

The boy only looked up when Jared entered. He got out of bed, and rushed over to Jared, pulling him into a hug. He was careful, though. Jared bit his lip in pain regardless of Evan’s cautiousness. “Jared-- Jared… Jared, I was so fucking worried. What happened? Please tell me what happened.”

Jared lifted away from the hug, and looked to Evan with sad, and swollen (one more than the other) eyes. “Let’s sit.”


	29. Chapter 29

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> jared talks to evan about what happened  
> heidi comes home and insists that jared should go to the hospital

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> tw still

The two sat on Evan’s bed. Evan had never looked so worried in his life. He looked to Jared with wide eyes, and desperately wished that he would have stopped him from going to school. He knew that it was basically impossible but, Evan hoped that it would have worked. Seeing Jared all beaten, and bruised broke his heart. He would find some way to blame himself for this.

Jared started to explain everything. “Everything just felt weird from the moment I stepped into the school. People stared, and mumbled, and laughed. I should have seen this coming… word was bound to get around. People who I’d never even spoken to before were suddenly talking about me.”  
  
Evan reached over and grabbed Jared’s hand, hoping to give the boy some sort of comfort. “Did everyone seem to be against you?”

“Everyone besides Alana Beck, and Zoe.” Jared sighed. “I probably would have been okay, but… I started to lash out at Zoe. I thought that she had to be the one who started this. I know that she wasn’t, though. But, we argued for a bit, and I ran off. I tried to hide in the courtyard, but… it really was no use.”

“This is so fucked, Jared.” Evan said. He took in a shaky breath. “How could people be so fucking malicious?”

Jared shrugged. “Not sure, Ev.” This whole thing was so fucking ridiculous. Jared wanted to cry, but was maintaining a strong face for Evan. 

Evan’s phone dinged, and he reached over to check it. He expected a text from his mother, but instead, it was an Instagram DM from someone he’d never heard from before. Evan slid his finger across the screen to open it, and his heart broke even more at the sight of what the DM lead to. A video of Jared getting beat up. The thumbnail was Jared, laying on the ground, being kicked.

“Jared…” Evan shook his head, his eyes filling with tears again. “This-- this guy, he… he just sent me a video, and-and--” He turned his phone to Jared.

Jared’s heart stopped. God, he was being recorded? Fuck, why wouldn’t he have been recorded? “Delete the message.”

Evan was already on that. He blocked the kid who’d sent him the video, and deleted the message. “They were kicking you…”

“Yeah.” Jared said. “My side hurts.”

“I texted my mom. I’m hoping that she’ll be home soon. We need to get you to the hospital.” 

Jared shook his head. “I don’t need to go to the hospital. It’s fine.”

Evan looked down. “I hope so.”

A few minutes later, the front door opened. Heidi was rushing upstairs to Evan’s room, hoping that Jared was home. She opened the door, looking to the two boys with nothing but worry and sadness on her face. “Jared--” She rushed over, and held his shoulders, leaning down. “Jared, kiddo, what happened?”

“I, uh…” Jared didn’t think it would be so hard to tell Heidi this. “I got beat up.”

Heidi examined his face. The cut across his cheek, and his swollen eye. “By who?”  
  
“Hudson Renshaw-- but, I’m fine. I just, uh… I just need to lay down, I think. Should be good.”

“Jared. Look at me.” Heidi said. “That cut on your cheek alone might need stitches.”

Jared looked to the side. “I don’t want to go to the hospital.”

“Sweetheart,” Heidi sighed softly. “You don’t have much of a choice. I’m sorry, but we need to get you checked out.”

“Jared said that his side is hurting. They kicked him.” Evan said quickly.

“They?” Heidi questioned. “There was more than one of them?”

The video had spread across Facebook. Some people defended the assault, and some people were against it. How could someone defend an assault like that? Just because Jared was gay?

“Sorry. That’s not the important thing. Honey, we need to get that checked out. You might have a broken rib, or-or something--” Heidi was starting to panic. She maintained it well, though. She was a mother, after all… she couldn’t go around freaking out all the time.

Jared sighed. He couldn’t disagree. He wanted to know if he needed to get surgery, or something… would he be able to get surgery if he needed it? Heidi wasn’t his legal guardian. Jared wasn’t sure. He didn’t want to overthink it… maybe he wouldn’t need surgery. 

Evan had went quiet after he mentioned Jared’s side hurting. Jared had given him a look of annoyance. It was clear that Jared didn’t want Heidi knowing that he was hurt in more places than just his face… but Heidi was bound to find out eventually. The video had reached 100,000 views on YouTube, despite it only being an hour old. Jared was going viral in the worst way possible.  
  
Evan was stressing out, though. What if everyone starting going for him next? That terrified him. This only started because he willingly got into a relationship with Jared. He was the bad guy. If he would have just stayed with Zoe, then none of this would have happened.

“Okay.” Jared complied. “Fine. We can go.”

Heidi put a hand on Jared’s cheek; the one that didn’t have a large cut going through it. “Let’s go, then. Let’s just hope that there’s not too many people in the waiting room.” She stood up straight, not before kissing his forehead. She moved over and kissed Evan’s, too.

The three of them got up, and went down to Heidi’s car. She was lucky to have got the rest of the day off. Her boss was pretty annoyed with her it seemed. Heidi hated her job to say the least. She hated her boss, and her co-workers. But, it was money, and she needed to continue working there… she did it all for Evan. 

Evan and Jared sat in the backseat of the car, as Heidi drove as fast as she legally could down the highway to the hospital. They had a fairly large hospital in town. They needed one, considering their small city was surrounded by smaller towns. Evan was quiet, looking out the window. Jared wanted comfort, but Evan didn’t seem to be in the mood for that. Jared would respect that.


	30. Chapter 30

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> heidi brings jared to the hospital.   
> he finds out that he'll need surgery, and is admitted.  
> evan breaks some news.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> tw still i guess??  
> also hey falsettos fans enjoy the little uhh easter egg i guess

It seemed like forever until they were at the hospital. Even the outside of the building made Jared want to throw up. He hated hospitals. The last time he was in one was when his grandma passed away, and he never wanted to step foot into one again. The smell, and atmosphere made him nervous. He hated it with a passion. Heidi parked the car as close to the emergency room as she could get. “Okay. I’m going to run and get you a wheelchair, Jared--”

“I can walk.” Jared insisted. He didn’t want to be wheeled in. It would make the whole thing a lot more embarrassing for him.

“Are you sure, Jared?” Heidi asked.

“Yes. I’m fine, really.” He reached for the door. He winced at the feeling in his side, but ignored it. He simply pushed through it, and got out of the car. He moved a hand to hold his side, and walked alongside Heidi and Evan as they joined him. They entered the building, and Heidi left the boys to go do the initial sign-in things. 

Evan lead Jared over to a seat in the waiting room, helping him sit down. He sat beside him, and let out a soft breath. His mind was wracked with things. Maybe this relationship was a bad idea? If all that was going to happen was Jared getting beat up, maybe this was a mistake.  
  
Jared watched as Heidi talked to the receptionist. He figured there would be issues, but Heidi returned soon with a soft smile. “We’re all set. They’re going to send a radiologist for us.”

Radiologist was a terrifying word. It was just a man, or woman who did x-rays… but it was so, so terrifying to hear.

They waited for about ten minutes, before a woman, with her dark hair cut into a bob entered the room. She entered with a welcoming smile. She was wearing a white lab coat of sorts. “Jared?” She called out.

Heidi looked to Jared, and held out a hand for him to help him stand up. Jared graciously accepted the help, and walked with Heidi up to the doctor. He could make out the name tag now; Dr. Charlotte. Evan trailed behind his mother, and his soulmate, following them down a hallway, and into a small room. It was fitted with an x-ray machine, and a bucket of lollipops. Well, maybe Jared would get at least something nice out of this.

Dr. Charlotte was holding a wristband. She asked for Jared’s right arm, and clipped it on. It contained all of his information. They’d obviously looked him up in the system. He’d broke his wrist in the third grade after falling off the playground. 

“Okay, Jared, I’m going to get you to change into that gown.  It’ll make the x-ray a lot easier.” Dr. Charolette explained as they walked into the room, pointing to the hospital gown that she had placed on a chair for him. “Knock on the door when you’re dressed. We’ll wait in the hallway, okay?”

Jared nodded slowly. “Okay.”

Dr. Charlotte closed the door, leaving Jared alone. She chatted with Heidi, and attempted to chat with Evan as they waited. Heidi was the only one to talk, though.

Jared got undressed, and then threw on the gown. It was gross feeling. It was like he was wearing a dress, which added more to his ‘stereotypical’ homosexual lifestyle. He figured if the kids from school had seen him in this, he would have been asked to put on a show, or something. Or, he would have just been beat up again. Jared folded up Evan’s hoodie, and his jeans, and put them on the chair. Then, he knocked on the door to inform Dr. Charlotte that he was ready.

Dr. Charlotte opened the door, and smiled to Jared. “Alright. Step behind that machine there, we’ll take a few pictures and see what’s going on.” 

Heidi had explained everything to Dr. Charlotte. She had figured that something bad had happened, hence the way Jared’s face was beat up. Heidi and Evan stood to the side.

Jared hobbled over to the machine, and did as instructed, standing behind it. Dr. Charlotte turned off the lights, and walked over to the machine. “Alright. There’ll be a little flash, but this will be over in a jiffie, okay?”

“Okay.”

“Just stand still, and relax.” Dr. Charlotte went on to take a few pictures. They were done quickly. Now all that was left to do, was let the photos develop. “I heard about what happened, Jared. And I just want to say that I’m incredibly sorry.”

Jared wasn’t sure what to say. He looked to Heidi, almost mad that he knew that she was the one to hell her… but he couldn’t stay mad. “It’s fine.”

Dr. Charlotte frowned. She went quiet, and waited for the photos to develop. They finished, and she put the most clear one into the light. “Alright. Bad news is that there’s a rib broken. Good news is that it’s not puncturing anything. You will need surgery, though.”

Jared swallowed roughly, and looked to Heidi again. “Can we even do surgery?”

Heidi nodded. “I explained everything. You’re being added to my life insurance until you turn eighteen.”  
  
He let out a soft breath of relief. “Okay.”

“We’ll call in the nurses to get you upstairs, okay? A doctor will be in to check with you when you get up there.” Dr. Charlotte explained. “I usually only offer suckers to my littler patients, but… would you like one?”

Jared shook his head. Not even sweets could cheer him up. “No. Thank you for the offer, though.”

“Of course.” Dr. Charlotte paged for a few nurses to come in with a bed. A room had already been set up for Jared, and his surgery would be scheduled for Wednesday morning. He would spend the rest of the week at the hospital recovering, and then would have a doctors note that would advise him to stay home from school. Thank god.

After a few minutes, three nurses came by, and helped Jared onto the bed. They traveled with him through the emergency wing, and got him into an elevator, bringing him upstairs to the room that had been set up for his stay. 

Evan was dreading this. He was dreading a lot of things, really. He was sick, literally and mentally, and didn’t want to be here. He held onto his mother’s arm as they traveled down the hallway with Jared, and into his room. 

“Dr. Melrose will be in shortly.” One of the nurses explained, after setting up Jared’s IV, and whatnot. She walked out after that, to go fetch said doctor.

Heidi let out a breath. “So, surgery, hey?”

Jared glanced away. “Yeah.”

“I’m sorry, Jared. But you know that this is going to be good for you, right?”

“I guess.”

Heidi looked to Evan, who was standing against the opposite wall from Jared. She gave him a look, wanting him to talk to Jared. She figured that Jared would listen to Evan, more than he would listen to her.

Evan swallowed roughly, and cautiously walked over to Jared’s beside.   
  
Jared turned his head, and looked up to his soulmate. 

“I think we should break up.” Was all that Evan said.


	31. Chapter 31

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> jared isn't too pleased with evan breaking up with him.  
> he meets his doctor, and heidi 100% has heart-eyes for him

Jared was shocked by what Evan had said. Shocked, and hurt. He was breaking up with him? For what reason? Because he was beat up? “What..?”

“I said that I think we should break up.” Evan repeated. “It’s for the best.”

“What best?” Jared asked. He wanted to sit up, but the boy could barely move. He was completely bedridden. “Evan, I just got beat up. Is that why you’re doing this?”

“I don’t think that a relationship is good for either of us right now.” Evan tried to justify.

Jared’s eyes filled with tears. He blinked them back, and looked away from Evan. “Fine.”

Evan looked down, and walked away. He looked to his mother. “I’m going to go for a walk.” And that, he did.

Heidi watched as Evan walked out. What just happened? Jared looked both pissed off, and sad. Tears fell down his cheeks as he stared out the window of his hospital room. Heidi walked over to him, and put a hand on his shoulder. “It’ll be okay, Jare. I promise.”

“Easy for you to say.” Jared said. “You’re not the one laying in a hospital bed. The one who’s boyfriend just broke up with him because it’d be “for the best”.” 

Heidi frowned, and leaned down, kissing Jared’s head. “Evan is in love with you. He’s overwhelmed right now is all, okay?”

“Whatever.”  
  
Heidi sighed softly, and glanced away. “The doctor should be in soon.”

And that, he was. A man entered the room. He was tall, with tanned skin, and dark hair. He looked as if he was around fourty, but looked good for his age… that was Heidi’s description, anyway. Jared just saw him as a doctor. His name tag read ‘ _Dr. Brandon Melrose_ ’.

He smiled to the two occupants of the room, and walked over to the opposite side of Jared’s bed, from where Heidi was. “Hey. You must be Jared.” He bit back a frown at seeing the state of the boy’s face. He always felt terrible seeing patients come in like that. “I’m Dr. Melrose. I’ll be prepping your for your surgery, and helping you afterwards, as well.” He looked up to Heidi. “Are you the mother?”

“In a way.” Heidi said. “Heidi Hansen.” She introduced.

Brandon smiled to her. “Nice to meet you. You’re welcome to stay, so don’t worry about that. I’ve just got to ask Jared a few general questions.”

Jared figured the doctor seemed nice enough. She seemed to make a good impression on Heidi, too. She had watched too many episodes of General Hospital, and Grey’s Anatomy. Jared listened as Dr. Melrose started to ask him some questions. Asking about his diet, and whether of not he was sexual active… he hated that question. Of course, it was a solid no, but it was still awkward to be asked that in front of your mother figure.

Brandon finished up, and offered Jared a smile. “Thank you. I’ll be back in a little later to check in on you. If there’s anything you need, there’s a button to the side of your bed that will alert a nurse to come in. That’s all you need to know for now. We’ll talk more about the surgery tomorrow. So, I will see you two later.”

“Three.” Heidi corrected. “A third person will be joining us. My son. Jared’s boyfriend.”

“That explains the ‘in a way’.” Brandon chuckled softly. “Alright. Sounds good. I will see you two, plus one, later.” He stood up straight, and nodded to Heidi, then left the room. Jared looked to Heidi, and smirked.  
  
“I think he’s into you.”  
  
Heidi’s face went red. “He’s not, Jared. That’d be extremely unprofessional. He’s just being friendly.” 

“You think he’s cute, don’t you?” Jared questioned.  
  
Heidi went quiet for a moment. “A little.” She admitted.

“Maybe he’s your soulmate?” 

Heidi shook her head, and laughed softly. “No way. No way, Jared… he’s not my soulmate. Besides, if he was, I don’t know him at all. I wouldn’t just go up and ask him.”

“Well, you’ve got a week, mom.” 

“He’s not my soulmate, Jared.”  
  
Jared shrugged, though wincing at the feeling. “You never know.”

Evan re-entered the room. He didn’t speak, or look up. He just sat down in the visitor’s chairs across the room. Heidi looked over, and frowned. “I’m going to go talk to him.”

“Okay.” Jared nodded. “But please don’t mention the breakup.” He whispered that last part.

“I won’t.” Heidi replied. She got up, and walked over to Evan, putting a hand on his shoulder. She spoke to him, but Jared zoned out, looking away from the two. He felt tears fighting their way into his eyes again. Could this day possibly get any worse? First the stares, and muttering, and laughter. Then, the whole ‘getting beat up’ thing. Then, the hospital, and figuring out he’d need to stay… and now, Evan breaking up with him. Everyone was wonderful. Just fucking wonderful.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> UHH FOREWARNING; HEIDI AND BRANDON DO GET TOGETHER ASHDOAUSDH IT WAS IN MY OG RP AND I DIDNT HAVE THE HEART TO CUT IT OUT BC I RLLY LIKED THEM EVEN THO BRANDON ISNT EVEN *IN* DEH


	32. Chapter 32

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> jared's surgery went smoothly, and he'd been home recovering for about a week.   
> he sits on the porch to calm himself and distract himself from his thoughts.   
> evan comes and joins him.

The surgery had come and gone. It went smoothly, and Jared was allowed to go home after the week was done. It had been two weeks since Evan broke up with him. In those two weeks, Heidi had discovered that her soulmate was, in fact, Dr. Brandon Melrose. Jared called it.

The last week, after Jared felt that his ribs felt alright enough to walk around with, without feeling like utter shit; Jared would go and sit on the front porch, and watch cars go by. He, himself, wasn’t allowed to drive, so he had to enjoy watching others do it instead. The recovery felt slow without having someone there beside him. Of course, Heidi would come and sit with him sometimes, and talk about Brandon, or the news or something; sometimes she’d even bring up new music that had come out. Jared could barely listen, though. His brain was wracked with thoughts about Evan.

Evan wasn’t doing so well himself. He hadn’t touched his medication since Jared and him broke up. His room was a mess, and he rarely wanted to leave his bed. His mother practically had to beg him to eat, and even when it did work, he ate in his room to avoid Jared (who had been sleeping in the spare room, along with all of his stuff). 

It was Tuesday. Jared was sitting out on the porch, staring ahead of him. Their street wasn’t very busy, but he would watch whatever cars went by. When he wasn’t watching the cars, he was watching the grass. There was a faint breeze that hung in the air, which caused the grass to sway. It was quite relaxing. What wasn’t relaxing was the sound of the screen door opening, and closing, and the feeling of something sitting down beside him. The figure didn’t speak. He just stared ahead. 

Evan had sat down beside him. He was sit of ignoring Jared.   
  
“What do you want, Evan?” Jared questioned. He didn’t look to Evan, but acknowledged that he was there.

Evan didn’t move. He was kind of glad that Jared wasn’t looking at him. He looked like a wreck. He hadn’t slept much, and the bags under his eyes were enough to prove that. Heidi had insisted that he got some sleep, but he could never find the motivation to do it. He’d try, but fail. “I miss you.” Evan said, quietly. “And I wanted to apologize.”

“For what?” Jared replied.

“Everything.” Evan looked down to his shoes. “I fucked up, Jared. I fucked up royally, and I’m so, so sorry.

Jared sighed, and finally looked over to Evan. He frowned at the sight of him. “You were stressed out. We were both in a bad spot, and it’s fine. We were both overwhelmed, and-and maybe you made the right decision--”

Evan looked to Jared. “It wasn’t the right decision. You’re right, I was overwhelmed, and I didn’t know what I was doing… but you needed someone to be there for you, and that should have been me. Instead, I ruined the one thing that I was happy about.”

“You didn’t ruin anything.” Jared reassured. “Evan, I understand. I can’t say that I’m entirely happy, but… I get it, okay? We can just forget about it.”

“Forget about it and do what?” Evan asked.

Jared didn’t know what to say. He looked away. If Evan wanted to get back together, that was cool. But, Jared wasn’t going to be the one to ask that. “I don’t know.”  
  
Evan looked away as well, and wrapped his arms around himself. “I was going to recommend trying again. Taking it slow. Not messing anything up this time. Maybe the reason that things got so overwhelming was because we were moving too fast.” 

“I’d like that.” Jared said.

“You would?” Evan asked.

Jared nodded. “Yeah. Evan, I love you. We’re soulmates, so even if we were broken up for, well… ever, I’d still love you.” He said, looking back to Evan. “We can go as slow as we need to. Try and make things less overwhelming.”

Evan felt a bit relief to hear all of that. “I love you too, Jared.”

Jared sighed softly, and moved over a small bit. He rested his head on Evan’s shoulder. “I missed you. A lot.”

“Same here. I could barely function. I just kept thinking about you.” Evan rested his own head on Jared’s. “I left you at one of the worst possible times of your life.”

“It could have been worse.” Jared said. “Surgery was easy. I was fucking out of it, though. Poor Heidi had to deal with my doped-up ass.”

Evan chuckled sadly. “I’m sure she got a kick out of it.”

“You know what else she got? A boyfriend.” Jared said.

“A soulmate, actually.” Evan corrected. “They’re happy together. And that makes me happy. I like Brandon. He treats her really well, and it’s what my mom deserves after all she went through with my dad.”

Jared smiled faintly to himself. “Yeah. It’s nice seeing them together.”

They’d found out they were soulmates at the hospital. Went for a coffee when Brandon had his lunch break, and got along really well. They were taking things one step at a time.

“How’ve you been, though?” Evan asked. “With your recovery, I mean.”

“It’s still hurting. But I’ve got a sick scar.” Jared was actually pretty proud of the scar. Part of him wanted to show it off and say that he removed his ribs to suck his own dick, or something… but nobody would believe that. If anything, they’d praise Hudson for successful breaking one of his bones. “It’s kind of hard to sleep. Not that I’ve been getting much, anyway… but I can’t sleep on my side without getting like… a terrible pain in my side, so.” 

“That sucks.” Evan said. “Uh… glad you think the scar is cool, though?”

“I don’t think so. I know so.” Jared joked.  
  
Evan laughed faintly, and sighed. “I missed this. I know we never really got much time to ourselves, but… I want more. I wouldn’t have been able to go long without you.”

“Yeah… me neither. With everything going on, I just want someone beside me.” Jared admitted. “I mean, obviously I have mom, but… it’s just not the same.”

“I understand. I checked Facebook. There’s so much shit going on right now.” Evan said. He hated to admit it. “I’ve only seen a few positive comments.”  
  
“Can we not talk about that right now?” Jared asked. He lifted his head away from Evan, and looked to him. “I don’t want to think about what other people are saying. I know everything. I’ve checked, too, but… I don’t want to think about it. I’m trying so fucking hard to just get it out of my head.”

Evan frowned. “I’m sorry, Jared.”  
  
“It’s okay. I’m sorry, I just… it’s so terrible. It’s keeping me up at night.”

Evan reached over, and took Jared’s hand. He gripped it within his own. “We won’t talk about it, then. Because I’d really like to actually sleep tonight.”  
  
“Me too. It’s been a long few weeks.” Jared yawned at the thought of sleep. “Can we go upstairs now?”  
  
Evan nodded. “Yeah. Nothing wrong with getting to sleep a little early.”

The two got up, and headed inside. Heidi was home, having the day off. She smiled softly from the living room seeing the boys together again. It wasn’t even her idea for Evan to talk to Jared, which was somewhat surprising… but it was nice to see the two together again. “What’s up, you two?” She asked.

“I think we’re going to bed a little early.” Evan said. 

Jared nodded in agreement. He gripped Evan’s hand tight.

“Okay, boys. Sleep good, alright?” Heidi got up, and walked over to the two. She leaned up, kissing each of their foreheads. “I love you two. Jared, be careful, remember? Don’t sleep on your side. At least not the one that’s hurting.”

“Right. I won’t.” Jared confirmed. 

“Love you too, mom.” Evan replied. With that, he brought Jared up to his room. “Excuse the mess. I haven’t had the motivation to clean up.”

“It’s okay. I don’t mind.” The two entered Evan’s room. It wasn’t too bad, but it definitely wasn’t as clean as it usually was. Clothes were dispersed everywhere. Evan was usually a fairly organized person, so seeing this was quite unnerving to Jared. Regardless, the two laid down together. 

“Cuddling isn’t considering moving too fast, right? I’m sorry for asking, I just need to be close to you.” Evan said. Jared shook his head.

“No.” He said. “It’s not considered moving too fast.”

“Okay.” With that being confirmed, Evan moved closer to Jared. He was careful of his side, even though the rib that had been broken was on the opposite side of his body. He brought his blanket over the two, and yawned, cuddling up to the boy. His head laid on Jared’s chest, and his arm rested beside it. Evan was already falling asleep, his eyes fluttering shut.

Jared was the exact same. He hadn’t slept in so long, and was ready to just fall asleep and not wake up for a few hours. Soon, the two of them were out like a light. It was only a matter of time.


	33. Chapter 33

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> evan and jared decide on going to the park  
> it will be the first time they've been outside together for longer than a few minutes since everything started

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> another calm and fluffy chapter

For once, the two had slept with a normal schedule throughout the week. School wasn’t a worry for them. The biggest thing was getting proper rest. Jared had been feeling a lot better, and so had Evan; he’d started to take his medication again, and was generally a lot happier than he was before. Of course, neither of them were completely happy, but they were getting there. It felt like maybe everything would be okay.

It was Saturday. The two had to go back to school on Monday, and they were okay with that. It would be nice to get back into the swing of things. Today, though, they wanted to be together. They’d made plans to go to the park later, and just relax there. Jared was allowed to drive again, and he was insanely excited to get behind the wheel again. Driving was always a big comfort for him, so not being able to drive away from his problems for a few weeks was extremely difficult. 

The two were up, and out of bed by ten. Heidi had went to work, and had left the two some breakfast in the fridge. They’d ate, and were currently planning their day.

“Alright, so we already settled on the park. And then what? Come back home?” Jared asked. “Go upstairs and watch a movie, or something?”

“That sounds good.” Evan smiled. “We could make some snacks, and watch some trashy romcom.”

“You like romcoms?” Jared laughed softly.  
  
“What’s so bad about romcoms?”

“Nothing. I just wouldn’t expect you to be the romcom kind of person.” Jared said. He reached over the kitchen table, and took Evan’s hands. “Then again, there are a lot of things about you that surprise me.”

“In a good way, I’m hoping.” Evan squeezed Jared’s hands.

“Of course.” Jared replied. “Are you ready to go? If we go now, we’ll probably have the playground to ourselves. That means we can swing.” He winked.

Evan blushed. “What do you mean by swing, Jared?”  
  
Jared realized that could have easily been an innuendo. “Dear God. I meant, like, use the swing sets. I did not mean... “ He cleared his throat. “Yeah. Okay, anyway. Are you ready?”  
  
“Well now that I know you’re not trying to, like… seduce me. Yes, I’m ready.” Evan giggled, and let go of Jared’s hands. He stood up, and started over to the front door. Jared followed. 

“We’ve only been dating for a month, Evan-- including the break. I don’t think I’ll be trying to seduce you yet.” Jared leaned up, and kissed his cheek, before going to put on his shoes and grab the keys to his car. 

“Keyword, yet.” Evan replied. He put on his own shoes, and chuckled softly. “ _ Yet _ .”

“Shut up.” Jared stood up straight. He gripped his keys in his hand, and checked to make sure he had his phone. Evan stood up as well, and took Jared’s hand. The two made their way out of the house, and to Jared’s car. Evan got into the passenger seat, and Jared got into the driver’s.

Jared let out a happy breath as he sat down. He closed the car door, and put the keys into the ignition. Zoe had kept her word, and returned it in one piece the day after she drove him home. The day Jared got home from the hospital, there was a get-well-soon card tucked underneath the windsheild wiper. It was pretty sweet to know that Evan’s ex-girlfriend was now one of Jared’s close friends.

“It’s nice to be back in the Kleinman-Mobile.” Jared said. That wasn’t his car’s actual name, in fact, its name was Greased Lightning. He’d always had a love for the musical Grease. 

“I’m sure.” Evan looked over to Jared. He reached over and turned up the radio, ‘ _ The Power of Love _ ’ was playing on the station that Jared had it tuned to. “I like your taste of music. It’s nice.”  
  
“ _ Don’t take money, don’t take fame. Don’t need a credit card to ride this train _ .” Jared sang, out of tune. Evan laughed softly, taking out his phone to record a video as Jared dramatically sang along to the song. 

“God, I love you.” Evan said, after ending the video. “You’re such a dork.”

“But I’m your dork.” Jared winked. He shifted into drive, and gently pressed his foot to the gas. “I think I’m gonna go through some songs and make us a playlist.”

“Really?” Evan’s heart fluttered. “I think that would be cute. Oh, can you put, uh… ‘ _ Love of My Life _ ’ by Queen on there? I know that you like Queen, and I like that song, and it reminds me of you.”  
  
“You’re adorable, Ev.” Jared glanced over to him. “For sure.”

“Cool. And that song that was just playing.” Evan added.

“Just so you can remember me singing along?” Jared asked, laughing softly. He turned on his blinker, and took a right turn. 

Evan shrugged. “Maybe.”

Jared reached over and took Evan’s hand, holding it tightly within his own. He kept a hold of it, until he was parked in front of the park they’d planned on going to. 


	34. Chapter 34

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> jared and evan try to relax, but someone interrupts their time together

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hi uh h h h h tw again im so sorry i promise this is over soon (i finished the book last night!! it has a very happy ending!!)

This was one of their childhood parks. Jared had a lot of memories with Evan here. It was pretty big park, with a man-made lake, and a sidewalk going around it. The playground was fairly large, too. The only people who populated this place before noon, though, were joggers, bikers, and people walking their dogs. 

The two got out of the car. “Bet you and I can beat you to the swings.” Evan dared.

Jared raised an eyebrow. “Ev, I did track and field for three years. So, I beg to differ.” Those three years, were four years ago, though. 

“Alright. It’s a bet, then. What are we betting for?” Evan asked. “Ah, okay. If I win, uh… ah! You have to sing all the way home.”

“Weird bet, but okay. If I win, we’ve gotta make-out.” Jared said.

Evan blushed. “Your bet is better.”

“Of course it is, honey.” He winked, chuckling softly.

“Alright, so the bet is just going to be same on both sides. It’s just a race now.” Evan stretched out, and smirked over to Jared. “Okay. Count of three.”

The two counted down, and started to run towards the swings. Jared had to stop after a few moments, his side hurting. He’d nearly forgotten about the fact that he’d had surgery. “Ev! Ev, I think you win by default!”

Evan turned around, walking backwards. His eyes widened when he saw Jared gripping his side. He rushed over to him, and held his shoulder. “You okay?” 

Jared laughed, and nodded. “Yeah. Yeah, I’m okay. Forgot that I had surgery. You win.”

“No, you do because you were injured. So, I’ve gotta make out with you.” Evan said. He wasn’t complaining.  
  
“We can save that for when we’re not in public.” Jared smiled to Evan, and straightened himself out. He took Evan’s hand, and the two walked peacefully over to the swingset. Once they’d made it, they each took a swing to themselves, and started to kick their legs back and forth. 

“I kind of missed this.” Evan admitted. “Going to the park, and stuff. Being a kid, and doing kid things. Now I’m going to be graduating high school. That’s insane.”

“I know, right?” Jared replied, looking over to Evan as he swung. “Soon we’ll be adults.”

“I don’t want to do adult things.” Evan groaned, looking back to Jared. “Are you going to college, Jare?”

“My parents really wanted me to. I’m still debating it. Kind of want to go for something tech related. I love programming, and would love to do something to do with programming as a career, but…” Jared shrugged. “I don’t know. I might. I have the money for it.”

“You do?” 

“Yeah. Mom and dad made the mistake of putting money for college in my bank account when I was ten. She said that it would come in handy. We kept adding to it, and now there’s probably close to fifty-thousand in there. All I’ve gotta do is take that shit out, and I’m set.” Jared explained.

“Holy shit.” Evan was quite amazed. “Your mom wanted you to go to, like… Harvard, though.”

“Yeah.” Jared scoffed. “I just want to go to the college here. I’m not going to fucking New York for school. No way.”

“Good.” Evan said. “Because if you moved to New York I’d have to come with you, and I would hate living there.”

“I would too.” Jared sighed, and looked forward, kicking his legs back and forth some more. “And the campuses are insane. Plus, how in the name of fuck would I afford a place there? Rent’s insane.”

“I’m sure it’s about the same here, considering we’re only two hours from New York City.”

“Believe me, Evy. It’s way worse in New York.”

“Not that it matters. You’re staying here, and we can live with my mom until we find our own place. Maybe I’m thinking too far ahead? I mean, we’re soulmates, so maybe it’s not ‘thinking too far ahead’. We’re supposedly meant for each other, so…” Evan was obsessed with the idea of a life with Jared. Jared had mentioned marriage, and adopting kids before, so he figured it was mutual.

“Nah, it’s not thinking too far ahead. I’d love to move in with you. Have our own little place. Whether it’s an apartment, or a house… I don’t care. So long as I’m living with you, that’s enough for me.” 

“That’s really sweet, Jared.”

“Yeah, that’s really sweet, Kleinman.” A familiar voice spoke from behind them. A male voice. He hadn’t heard anyone approach, but regardless, Jared dragged his feet across the rocks to stop the swing. He turned around, and swallowed whatever courage he had; Hudson stood, smirking to Jared. Evan had stopped his own swing, and moved over to stand with Jared. “How cute. Two fags in one place.”

“What do you want, Hudson?” Jared asked. 

“Well, I was just in the neighbourhood, and saw you two so… thought I’d come say hi.” Hudson said. “I think I owe you two a thank you. Mr. Homewrecker, and Mr. Kicked-Out… you two have made me internet famous. People are posting that video everywhere. Jared, sweetheart, I really owe it all to you.”

“Okay, jackass.” Jared’s brows furrowed. “Just fuck off, okay? I think you’ve done enough damage.”

“Little Jared’s getting defensive? Try me. You’re like five-foot fuck all. I could practically step on you.” Hudson crossed his arms.

Jared scoffed. “Is that supposed to offend me? Or scare me?”

Evan was silent. He just listened as the two relayed back and forth.

“What? You’re not scared, Kleinman?” Hudson dropped his arms to his side, and stepped forward, pushing Jared aside. He grabbed Evan by the collar of his sweatshirt. The boy’s heart rate jumped from fast, to even faster, and his eyes were wide with complete fear. 

Jared was quick to defend him. He balled his fingers into a fist, and threw a punch, hitting Hudson directly in the eye. His grip on Evan loosened, and Jared moved over to grab him before he fell. “You okay, Ev?”

“Jare, you--” Evan shook his head, and blinked a few times. 

“Go to the car, okay? I’ll handle this.”

“I can’t leave you, Jared.”

Hudson put a hand to his eye, and straightened himself out. He glared over to Jared. “Pretty strong punch for such a weakling.”

“Weakling? Really? That’s all you’ve got?” Jared taunted. “Hey, dickwad. Maybe get a better vocabulary before you try to test me.” He turned to Evan. “Ev, please just go. I don’t want you to get hurt.”

“Well, I don’t want you to get hurt, either.” Evan retorted. 

“I can take it, Evan.”

Hudson faked a pout as he watched Evan and Jared converse. “So, when are you two going to fuck? I’ll get the popcorn.”

“And you call me pathetic.” Jared said, looking back to Hudson. The taller, and stronger boy was getting pissed now. Nothing he said was getting to Jared, so he’d better get physical. He dropped his hand from his eye, and threw a punch in Jared’s direction. Jared blocked it. “Best you’ve got, Hudson?”

“Shut the fuck up!” Hudson yelled. He took a step forward, ready to attack. Evan stepped in front of Jared, and glared at Hudson. 

“Ev, what are you doing?” Jared put a hand on his shoulder. Evan glanced back to Jared.  
  
“Protecting you.” He replied, simply.

“I don’t need protecting, Ev.”

“Yes you--” Evan was cut off by a strong hit to the face. He toppled to the ground, the punch that Hudson had thrown being enough to knock him off his feet. He gripped at his eye, where Hudson had punched him. His eyes were closed tight, and he fought every urge to cry.

Hudson laughed. He towered over Evan, and kicked at him a few times. Evan couldn’t fight back tears anymore. He cried out in pain. Jared was frozen, watching in fear. He could have been fighting him off. He should have been fighting him off… but then, there were sirens.

“Shit.” Hudson’s eyes widened, and he immediately stopped kicking at Evan. He ran off in the opposite direction that the sirens were coming from. A passerby had obviously called the cops. Jared could not get involved with the cops, and he definitely didn’t want Heidi to be getting a call saying that her son was at the police department.

Jared leaned down, and looked to Evan. “Ev, we need to go.”  
  
“J-Jare--” Evan sniffled, and attempted to sit up. He winced and nearly cried out again. It didn’t look like Hudson had hit him in the ribs or anything, which was good. It was all in the hips, and some in the stomach. “I-I-- I can’t--”

“I’ve got you, Ev. It’s okay. Don’t worry.” Jared helped Evan sit up, biting his lip and fighting back every urge to cry seeing Evan’s pain. “We need to go before the cops get here.”

“B-But-- but they could-- they could help, Jared.” Evan said.

Jared stood up, and offered Evan his hand. Evan took it, and Jared pulled him up, then wrapped an arm under his own to steady him. “If the cops get involved, then they’ll send me to New York to live with my aunt.”

“How are we s-suppose to get away? Isn’t this illegal?”

“Kind of. But, I’ve got a plan. We’ll just go around. Wait in the trees until they get here, then escape to my car, okay? You can lay down in the back if you want.” Jared said. Evan shook his head.

“No-- no. I’m okay. But, okay. L-Let’s do this.”

The two made it over into the trees. They hid. Jared watched as the cops pulled up, starting to investigate the area. He looked to Evan, and nodded. “We’re good.” Jared wrapped his arm under Evan’s again, and walked at a steady pace with him back to his car. They made it, and got inside.   
  
Jared was quick to buckle up, and start to drive away. Well, today was definitely not something he would right home about. He glanced over to Evan, who was hugging himself. His eye was swollen, and his lip trembled. 

“I’m so, so sorry this happened, Evy.” Jared said.

Evan sniffled. “You didn’t know that it would happen.”

“I should have known better than to go out in public with you, though. This is so fucking ridiculous. He hurt you. I’m going to fucking kill him.”  
  
“Please don’t. I don’t want you to go to jail.”

“I’m being metaphorical.” Jared said. He sighed, and looked forward. “Jesus Christ I just wish that things would go back to normal.”


	35. Chapter 35

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> jared and evan return to school

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> basically the last angsty chapter of the book (about time im going to be known as that kleinsen author on ao3 who lives on to be a fucking sadist or something... i promise im not)

Things felt as if they would never be normal. Thankfully, Evan was fine by Monday. They didn’t tell Heidi about their encounter with Hudson. They played Evan’s black eye off as Jared accidentally hitting him with a Wii Remote while they were playing Mario Kart. Heidi, for whatever reason, believed that.

They were back to school today, and neither Jared, or Evan wanted to be there. Since the incident, the two had barely touched each other. It felt like someone was always watching them. As much as Jared wanted to hold Evan, and be held in return, he couldn’t find the courage to do it. Evan was the exact same way.

They walked into the school together, but didn’t hold hands, and stand close together. They stayed at a reasonable distance. Alana approached them as they entered the school.

“Jared, Evan, you’re back.” She forced a smile to the two of them. Jared glared at her, as if he were about to scream at her for doing so much as smiling. “Jared, I saw what happened, and I’m so sorry. Hudson is a dick. I’m sure you’ll be happy to hear that he was arrested on Saturday.”

“What?” Jared was shocked.

“Yeah. I guess justice is sick of his crap.” Alana pushed up her glasses. “I don’t think he’s getting a sentence, though. He’s seventeen, so he can’t even go to jail anyway… juvie, maybe, but I doubt it. Guess that’s the ugly truth about the judicial system.”

“Yeah…” Jared sighed. He looked to Evan, who was staring at the floor.

“People have been… royally pissed about Hudson, though. All of the other people involved got away without even a charge. People are putting you guys at blame, and have taken social media by storm with hashtag justice for Hudson.” Alana looked down. “There’s a lot going on right now. I’d watch out. People are relentless. And, maybe stay off social media. People have found out a lot about you guys, and it’s getting out of hand.”

“Thanks for the heads up, I guess.” Jared crossed his arms. 

“I’m sorry, Jared.”

Jared shrugged. “What can you do?” He turned to look to Evan, but he was gone. His eyes widened. “I’ve gotta go, Alana.” Jared ran off. He knew that Evan’s first place to go when he was having a panic attack at school was the bathroom. He rushed the one that Evan went to. It was secluded, and people tended to forget about it. Most people just used it to smoke, or vape. Evan, used it to get away from everyone, and everything.

Jared entered the bathroom, and looked around, seeing Evan in the middle stall. He was sitting on the floor, sobbing to himself. Jared walked over, and lightly knocked on the stall door. “Ev? Can I come in?”

Evan sniffled, and reached up to unlock the door. Jared opened it, and closed it behind him as he entered. He locked it, and sat beside Evan, wrapping an arm around him. He gently rubbed his shoulder. “It’s going to be okay.”  
  
“How c-can you say that, Jared?” Evan asked, looking to him. “J-Jared-- Jared, literally… literally everyone is out to get us. Everyone hates us.”

“Not everyone.” Jared said. “We have, uh… Zoe. And Alana.”

“That’s two people out of, what? Five-hundred?” Evan sniffled, and wiped his eyes. He took in a shaky breath. “Jared-- Jared, I’m so fucking scared.”

Jared swallowed. “I know, Ev. I am, too.”

Evan rested his head on Jared’s shoulder. 

“I should have protected you from all of this.” Jared said. “I could have.”

“Are you saying that I need protecting?” Evan asked.  
  
“Evan, you got beat up.” Jared reminded. “And I stood back and watched. I did nothing. I was terrified to even fucking move.”

“I could have defended myself. I’m not weak, Jared.” Evan moved away from Jared, and looked to him. “Contrary to what you might think, I’m not weak.”

“I didn’t say that you were, Evan…” Jared said. 

Evan rolled his eyes. “Right. Right, so me needing protecting isn’t your way of saying I’m weak?”  
  
“Evan, stop, you’re overthinking this.”

“I’m overthinking this? Don’t say that, Jared.” Evan hugged himself tightly, avoiding Jared’s eyes. He knew that he was freaking out of something small, but his brain was so wracked with emotions, and he couldn’t get a grip. “I -I-- I’m not overthinking, Jared. I’m not. I’m thinking about this logically-- who are you to say that everything will be okay? You don’t know that. You don’t fucking know that.”

“You’re right, Evan. I don’t know that. But heaven forbid I try to comfort you during all this, right?” Jared scoffed. “How fucking dare I?”

“You’re putting false hope into my head!” 

“Well, I’m sorry!”

“You know-- you know, maybe everything would just be normal if I was with Zoe. If I wasn’t dating you, and-and was in a normal relationship with her, th-then this wouldn’t be happening.” Evan muttered.

“Excuse me?” Jared’s eyes narrowed. “What am I to you, Evan? Obviously not as good as Zoe, or whatever. Evan, you promised me that you would stick by me. You told me that you loved me. And now you’re talking about Zoe again? We’re soulmates, Evan.”  
  
“You didn’t even believe in soulmates!” Evan yelled. 

“If you love Zoe so much then why don’t you just go fucking get her?” Jared questioned. He stood up, and glared at Evan. “If you’re so desperate for all of this to stop, then go for it.”

“Jared, wait--” Evan regretted saying anything about Zoe. He did love Jared. “Jared, I don’t--”

“What, Evan? What? I’m in love with you, and I wasn't about to let some fucking harassment from classmates distract me  from that fact. You changed me for the best, and I wasn’t about to let some harsh words drive me away from you. But, you want Zoe. You want Zoe, and you don’t want me, so whatever. You want to be _normal_.” Jared argued.

“That’s not what I--”

“Not what you meant?” Jared shook his head. “Whatever, Evan. Fuck you. Text me when you need a ride home.” With that, Jared left. 

He stared at the ground as he walked away, his eyes filling with tears. He decided to go to his first class and just get it over with.

Evan, on the other hand, had completely broken down. He couldn’t believe that he started that. Jared was going to hate him. He was going to break up with him, and want to stay broken up. The word ‘soulmate’ would no longer mean anything to him. Evan just sobbed to himself through his first, and second class. That was when he texted Heidi.

 

 **Mom**  

Can you pick me up?

 

Heidi was lucky enough to have her phone on hand when Evan texted her. Her eyes narrowed with confusion and worry.

 

**Evan**

Why…? What’s wrong…?

 

Evan read over the text, and thought about what he could say.

 

**Mom**

I just don’t feel good. I don’t want to be here. Or anywhere.

 


	36. Chapter 36

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> jared leaves the school. he wants to get away from everything

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> okay i lied one more angsty chapter

Jared had ended up skipping the rest of his classes. He walked out of the school, and to his car. On the driver’s side door, someone had engraved the word ‘ _faggot_ ’. Jared felt sick. He wanted to destroy his car, just because of that one fucking word. He wanted to drive it into a wall, and continue to sit inside until he exploded or burned. This wasn’t the first time Jared had felt suicidal, but he wanted it to be the last time. Maybe if he killed himself, then everything would spot. Maybe things would go back to normal? Then Evan would be happy. He could go back to Zoe, and live out a normal life; have normal kids, in a normal neighbourhood, in a normal house.

Jared got into his car, and started it. His vision was blurry, but he ignored it. He wiped at his eyes, and started to drive. He wasn’t sure where he was going, or what he was going to do. All he knew was that he was going somewhere that wasn’t here. 

Jared gripped at his steering wheel, trying his best not to start crying more than he already was. People would look at the word engraved into his car as he drove by, but Jared paid no mind to that. He had more important things on his mind; like driving into oncoming traffic.

He’d made it to the highway. His palms had grown sweaty from gripping the steering wheel so tight. He was about thirty minutes outside of town, and he was ready to swerve his car into the oncoming semi, but something pulled him out of his trance. His phone was going off. Jared took in a few deep breaths, and pulled over. He parked, and reached for his phone.

 

_ Incoming Call from Heidi Hansen (Mom) _

 

Jared had to answer. He put his phone up to his ear, and sniffled. “Hello?”

“Jared? Jared, oh my god. Honey, where are you?” Heidi asked. She was freaking out.

Jared looked around. He didn’t know where he was. “Don’t know.”

“What do you mean you don’t know?” Heidi was frantic. “Jared, I need to know where you are. Look at your GPS, where does it say you are?”

“I’m on the highway.” Jared said.

“Are you driving right now?”

“No. I pulled over.”

“Thank god.” Heidi let out a soft relieved breath, but she wasn’t completely relieved. “I picked up Evan from school, and I was going to pick you up too. But in the attendance it said that you’d left early. Send me your location, please.”

“I will.” Jared wanted to go home. He couldn’t believe that he was about to kill himself. It wasn’t just because of Evan and his fight, though… that would have been a pathetic reason. Though, any reason that someone was thinking to kill themselves was pathetic in Jared’s mind. Jared sent Heidi a text quickly, sending her his location. Basically, the middle of nowhere. 

Heidi took in a few breaths, and let them out. She looked at the text. “I’m on my way, Jared. Don’t move, okay? Just stay where you are.”

“Okay.” Jared said.  
  
“I love you, Jared. I love you so much.” Heidi hung up, and pulled out of the school’s parking lot. Evan hadn’t spoke since Heidi picked him up. He was silent, simply staring at the road ahead of him as they drove to meet with Jared. He felt terrible. He felt terrible for hurting Jared.

Heidi looked to Evan, and frowned.  
  
“Talk to me, Ev. I want to know what happened.” Heidi said. She was worried for the both of her boys. “It’s not like you to text me at work asking to be picked up.”

Evan continued to stay silent. 

“Evan, please talk to me.”

“Everyone hates us.” Evan said, simply. “I can’t take a step without someone calling me a faggot.”

Heidi looked to the road ahead of her. “And that’s why you wanted to come home?”

“Jared and I had a fight. I made a mistake. I don’t want him to break up with me, mom. I love him, and I don’t want him to break up with me. Everything’s just so overwhelming, and-and I don’t know how to focus anymore--”

“Hey, hey, kiddo,” Heidi reached over and took Evan’s hand. “Take a few breaths, okay? Jared’s not going to break up with you. I know he won’t. When you two took that break, Jared would talk to me about how much he loved you, and how much he wanted to spend his life with you. You’re his soulmate, honey. Jared isn’t going anywhere.”  
  
Evan sniffled, and took in a shaky breath. “I hope you’re right.”


	37. Chapter 37

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> heidi meets with jared and talks to him  
> they drove home, and both evan and jared apologize

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> okay guess what? second last chapter. and guess what? its not that angsty.

The rest of the drive to meet with Jared was silent, aside from Evan’s occasional hiccup or sniffle, and the faint hum of the radio. Soon, though, they were parked behind Jared’s car. Heidi got out, and rushed over to the driver’s side. Her heart broke at the word engraved in the side. She gently knocked on the window, seeing Jared with his head in his hands.   
Jared looked up, his eyes full of tears. He rolled down his window. 

“Jared. I’m so glad that you’re okay-- well… for the most part, anyway. What happened, honey?” She wanted to hear Jared’s side of the story. His side was completely the same.

“I messed up, mom. I messed up, and Evan’s going to hate me. I left him alone. I told him to go back to Zoe. I-I…” Jared broke down again, resting his head on the steering wheel. “I love him, so much. So, so much. And I don’t want to fuck things up more than I already have.”

Heidi looked back to Evan in the car, and then to Jared. “Listen, sweetheart. Evan’s not going to break up with you. I promise. I would never lie to you. Evan loves you. He’s told me so many times how much he loves you. He’s not going to let you go, okay? No matter what happened. Fights are natural. It’s okay.”

“I hope that you’re right.” Jared lifted his head, and looked to Heidi again.

“Are you okay to drive home?” Heidi asked. She was cautious right now.   
  
Jared nodded. “Yeah. Yeah, I’ll be okay. I’ll stay behind you the whole way.”

Heidi wished there was a way that she could just pick up his car later, but, she didn’t trust people. She also didn’t have the money for tow truck. “Okay. Okay, please. Please, please, please stay safe.”

“I will, mom. I’ll be okay.”

“Okay.” Heidi took in a breath, and let it out. “Okay. Let’s go, then. We can just get home, and try to relax, okay? I’m going to try and figure something out school wise for you two.”

Heidi gently drummed her fingers against Jared’s car, before walking back to her own car, and putting it into reverse. She flipped a u-turn, and watched as Jared followed. 

The trip back home was extremely cautious. Drivers got pissed off, and went around them, but Heidi didn’t care. She wanted her boys home safe. By the time they got home, it was quarter to two. Heidi parked her car in the driveway, and Jared parked his own on the street. They all got out of their respective vehicles, and started up the driveway to the front. 

Jared watched as Evan walked with his head down. He felt terrible. He needed to say something. He caught up to him, and tapped him on the shoulder. Evan stopped. “What do you want?”

“To apologize.” Jared said.

Heidi turned around as she reached the porch. She saw the two about to talk, so she let them do their thing. She opened the door, and entered the house, going to call her boss to tell her she’d work extra hours this weekend to make up for the time she was going to miss.

“Evan, look… I’m so, so sorry-- and-and I get it if you hate because I fucked up, Ev. I fucked up so bad, and I made you upset, and I’m sorry. Nobody is telling you to accept this apology, and if you want, I can leave tonight. I can pack, and drive up to New York--”

“Jared, stop.” Evan turned around to face him. His eyes were still full of tears, and his cheeks were stained. He was clearly fighting back more. He walked to him, and wrapped his arms around him tightly. There was no fighting back tears now. Evan sobbed into Jared’s shoulder, and held him close. “I-I-- I was so-- so scared that you were going to leave me. I was talking to my mom, and-and I was just-- just terrified that you were going to leave me and I would never get to spend my life with you. I-I don’t know what I was thinking. I shouldn’t have started the fight.”

“I don’t understand why you want to spend your life with me, Ev.” Jared admitted. “Look what I’ve gotten us into. We’re the most popular kids at school in the worst way possible. We’re everywhere. Why would you want to spend your life with me when all I’ve done is bring you down?”

Evan pulled back, and took in a shaky breath. He hiccuped. “Because I’m in love with you. I don’t care that people are out to get us. I want to be with you because you’re my soulmate, and because you’re the one person to truly wants to be with me, too. You’re the boy I’ve fallen in love with, and so what if our faces are everywhere? The thing is that I want to be with you. I don’t want Zoe. I don’t need to be normal. Normal isn’t a word that’s in my vocabulary. I like the extraordinary things of life. Being normal is boring.”

Jared’s lip trembled as he fought back tears. He reached a hand up to Evan’s cheek, and gently wiped away his tears as they fell. “But you do care what people are saying. Because so do I. You can’t say that you completely tune it out.”

Evan glanced away. “I know. It hurts. I hate it, but… I want to be with you. Not just because we’re a match, but because you’re you. You’re Jared. You’re strong, and funny, and just-- you’re fantastic, Jared. We’ve made it this far, so we’re not going to give up now.”  
  
“We’ve gotta retaliate.”

“Maybe not so much retaliate as persevere through the last bit of this year until graduation.”

“As soon as we graduate then things will go back to  _ our  _ normal.”

“And who knows, maybe things will die down sooner than we think?”   
  
Jared smiled faintly. “I really hope so, Evan.”


	38. Chapter 38

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> flash forward a few months to evan and jared's graduation.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> THE FINAL CHAPTER! REALLY CUTE LIL' CHAPTER TO LEAVE THINGS OFF!

Evan was right. Things did die down sooner than they thought they would. Of course, they would get a glare, or a slur occasionally. But for the most part, everyone's opinion had changed. They realized that Hudson’s attack against Jared was ridiculous. They realized that everything that had been done was horrible, and ridiculous. So many people had apologize, including some of the people who used to be Hudson’s friends. 

Jared and Evan were free to express their relationship in their own way. They didn’t have to hide anymore. They were comfortable. 

And graduation came quick. They’d made it. They could go back to their normal. 

“Evan Hansen.” Jared clapped as his boyfriend's name was called. He watched him go across the stage, his eyes filled with happy tears. This was one of the highlights for sure. Brandon and Heidi watched from the stands. There was an engagement ring on Heidi’s finger, and soon Brandon and her would be married. Evan had accepted the fact that he’d be Brandon’s step-son, and was honoured to have a father-figure back in his life.   
  
A few more names were called before Jared’s own. Though, as soon as soon as he was called, the room erupted into applause. Somehow, Jared and Evan had become some sort of heroes to the school. A lot of the freshmen who rarely showed their faces had come up to them, and thanked them for being strong. It was bittersweet.

Jared walked up to the stage. He shook the hands of many, and accepted his diploma. He was crying, and people were asking if he was okay. How was he supposed to say that he was the best he’d ever been? Jared simply nodded, and walked down the stage to the seat that was prepared for him. He glanced down the row to Evan, who was also crying. He waved, and mouthed an ‘I love you’, and ‘congratulations’. 

Soon, their caps were being thrown in the air, and kids were scrambling to find their own. Jared found his own, and walked over to Evan. He pulled him into a hug, and kissed his shoulder. “We did it.”

“We did. Today marks the journey of the rest of our lives.” Evan said. Jared pulled back from the hug, and looked to Evan with a smile.   
  
“And I cannot wait to spend it with you.”

The two made their way over to Heidi and Brandon. Heidi had obviously been sobbing. She was clinging her fiance, and wiping at her eyes with the Kleenex she’d brought. She knew that she would need it. She only let go of Brandon to pull both boys into a tight hug. “I’m so proud of you two.”

Brandon walked over, and put a hand on Heidi’s shoulder. He’d also been crying. “The same goes for me.”

“Thanks, guys.” Jared pulled back, and looked to Evan. “I have to say. I am so glad that high school is over. I’m ready to just move on from all this, and finally be able to spend time with Evan without having to worry about grades for a while.”

Jared had decided to go to college. He’d been accepted into the one in town, and started next Spring. He was excited, and nervous at the same time. 

“It’s going to be good for us. We finally have the time to relax together.”

“It’s just good to see you boys truly happy now.” Heidi hated to think back to the earlier months of the year. How bad the both of them were doing mentally. Jared had confessed that he’d thought about killing himself, and had started seeing a therapist. He’d still been going to the occasional meeting. And Evan still had Dr. Sherman. 

He’d also told his mom, and Jared the truth about the summer he worked at Ellison. It ended in tears, of course, but they were okay.  
  
“And this time it’ll last.” Evan said. He wrapped an arm around Jared, and smiled. “We have our freedom, and our happiness. It’s not going anywhere.”

Heidi smiled brightly. She pulled out her phone, and instructed the boys to pose for a picture. Jared pressed a kiss to Evan’s cheek, and Evan smiled brightly. It was one of the brightest smiles the boy had ever had. Heidi snapped the picture, and immediately set it as her phone background. She sent it to both boys, as well as Brandon. 

“I’m sure that you two want some time alone to go and chat with your friends, so we’ll let you go. I think I saw the Murphy’s outside, so I’m going to go introduce Brandon.” Heidi said. She kept a smile on her face. “Here, I’ll grab your boys’ diplomas. Take them home for you.”

Jared and Evan handed both diplomas over, and thanked Heidi, watching as she walked away to go find the Murphy’s. They’d gotten in contact thanks to the fact that Evan and her were close again. 

“Zoe’s over there with Alana. You wanna go say hi?” Evan asked, pointing over to Zoe and Alana, who were talking, and crying, and laughing. They’d found out they were soulmates recently. And they worked perfectly together.  
  
“Yeah, sure, but hold on. I have something for you.” Jared said. He pulled his arm through the sleeve of his gown, and dug through the pocket of the dress pants he was wearing underneath. He took hold of a small ring, and pulled his arm back through the sleeve. He held it out to Evan. “Your graduation gift. I’m not proposing to you. Not yet, anyway, but I wanted to get you a promise ring. Just so you know that it will happen.”  
  
Evan looked to the small ring. The gold twisted into an infinity sign, and Evan fought every urge not to start crying again. “Jared, I--” Evan leaned down and kissed his cheek. “It’s beautiful.”

“Hold out your hand. Let’s see if it fits.”   
  
Evan nodded, and held out his hand. It was shaky, not because he was anxious, but because he was happy. He was so, extremely happy. Jared slipped the ring on, and smiled. “It fits perfectly.”  
  
“Good.” Jared took Evan’s hand afterward, and entwined their fingers. “I’m glad. Now, let’s go see Zoe and Alana.”

The two made their way over to the girls. Alana looked over and smiled brightly to the two as they approached. She was lucky to have been wearing waterproof mascara, because she was crying a lot. Happy tears, of course. Zoe had just given her her grad gift; a locket with a picture from their first date. Alana was currently wearing it with pride.

“Hey, lovebirds.” Jared joked, gripping Evan’s hand tight. “Zoe, how’s it feel to be dating a graduate?”

“Hey. I’m graduating next year.” Zoe defended. “But, it feels pretty damn good.” 

Evan let go of Jared’s hand to show off his ring.    


“Did Jared propose?” Alana gasped, and looked to the two. “Are you two getting married? Oh my God!”

“No! No, not yet. It’s a promise ring.” Jared said. They weren’t even eighteen yet. Evan turned eighteen next month, and Jared was the month after. “I’m just promising to him that we will get married when the time is right. And that I’m going to be the one to propose.”

Evan looked to Jared. “That’s only if I don’t beat you to it.”

“We’d better be invited.” Zoe said. She gestured to Alana. “I gave her a locket. She has been crying over it for the past, like, ten minutes.”

“It’s a nice gift, Zo. I’m emotional.” Alana chuckled softly. She opened the locket, and showed the picture to Evan and Jared. “From our first date. We went out for sushi and Zoe ate, like, this big ball of wasabi. You can tell because her eyes are still watering in the picture.”

Zoe’s face went red. “It was hot stuff, Lana. I’d like to see you try to eat that much wasabi without crying.”

“You won’t get the chance to see because it’s never going to happen.”

“God, you two are great.” Jared laughed softly, and took Evan’s hand again. “Zoe, you coming to the diner?”

“Lana invited me, so, I guess I am.” Zoe said. “My brother also invited me, which was weird.”

Connor had actually talked to them a few times. He was pretty down to earth. Evan didn’t know why he was so afraid of him. The same went for Jared. He always thought that Connor was sketchy, but, he was actually chill to be around. “So I guess you have two dates.”

“Guess so. Thankfully we’re all sharing a table so I won’t hopping back and forth.” Zoe laughed. “Jared, how’d it feel to have that, like, intense applause?”

“Overwhelming. I was crying. Like, all the teachers up there were asking if I was alright.” Jared replied. “Evan got it, too.”

“Your’s was a lot more, though, babe.” Evan said. “It echoed. Hell, I think I can still hear it. Did you hear me calling?”  
  
“No. Too much was going on. What did you say?”

“You were walking up, and I yelled out ‘that’s my boyfriend!’. I got a few aww’s.” Evan was pretty proud of himself for that. 

“You’re adorable, Ev.”  
  
Zoe faked a gag, and reached over to take Alana’s hand. “You two are disgustingly cute. I guess that’s what eight months gets you.”

“Nearly nine.” Jared winked. “Getting pretty close to our one year mark. I’m pretty excited for that.”

Zoe looked over Evan and Jared to see Connor waving both Alana and her over. “Shit. We’ve got to go. My parents wanted to go take grad photos, and they’re making Alana and her parents come. I could ask if you guys could come along?”

Both Jared, and Evan shook their head. “Nah, that’s okay. We’ll get pictures together later on. I think Ev and I had plans.”

Zoe wiggled her eyebrows. “Kinky.”

“Not like that.”

“Whatever you say. See you guys at eight.” Zoe started to walk with Alana. She waved to the two.  
  
“See you guys! Have fun doing whatever you’re going to do until eight!” 

Evan looked to Jared. “What _are_ we doing until eight?”  
  
“Thought we could go for a drive. Brag about the fact that we graduated.” Jared said.

Evan smiled. “That sounds good.”

So, they left and went out to the parking lot, and got into Jared’s car. They didn’t know where they were going. They didn’t have a destination. All they were doing was driving, and living their first few hours of complete freedom. And it felt good. It was definitely worth the wait.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hi thanks for sticking by. i know that this was a lot to take in and.. there were almost 40 chapters... honestly i felt bad so thats why im leaving it off here. i figured it would be a nice little way to just... yknow, leave it.  
> i hope y'all enjoyed it even through all of the angst. i own y'all a happy kleinsen fic.  
> the thing with the og rp was that i didnt want the ordinary "uwu we're soulmates" prompt. i wanted to switch things up a little... thus, this was born. the original rp is still going and likely will not end in the way that this did.  
> at lot more shit also happened in the rp but,, im absolute garbage with writing certain things so i cut them out.   
> anyway im gonna skrt. thanks for reading. i'll give you all a hug in the comments.


End file.
